He was one of the first black police officers in Miami. The stories he can tell
When Archie McKay put on his City of Miami Police uniform for the first time in 1954, 10 years after the city hired its first five Black officers, it was a bittersweet moment. While he was proud to be a police officer, he said some of his own people were not.
“Some of our people rejected us calling us Uncle Toms and other derogatory names,” McKay said.
But being a Miami Police officer was what McKay had decided to do. So, he stayed for 26 years, quietly working behind the scenes to make changes in the department to benefit the young officers following him. My late husband James F. Hines Sr., who ranked No. 2 in the second integrated graduating class from the Police Academy in 1961, was one of them.
On Nov. 15, McKay turned 100 years old. And his family and church family gave him a ‘‘Century of Greatness” celebration that lasted for a week.
McKay was born in Fort Green, Florida. His family moved to Miami when he was a child, and he attended Miami’s Colored public schools.
He left high school in 1944, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. After he was honorably discharged, he went back to school and graduated in Booker T. Washington Junior/Senior High School’s Class of 1948.
That same year, he married his sweetheart Anis Yvonne White, and they later became the parents of five girls and two boys.
McKay’s career as a city of Miami police officer started when his friend Oswald Johnson told him that he heard Miami was hiring “Coloreds” to be police officers.
“I told him I didn’t want to be no police officer. He called me chicken, and I said, ‘Okay. Come on. Let’s go sign up.’ They gave us a written test and a physical test, and you had to be at least 5 feet, 9 inches tall. I passed both tests, but Oswald didn’t pass the physical test. I made it and he didn’t.”
McKay said, “At the time, I was married with three children, working in a kosher meat market. And my family was against my decision. I told them more people were killed in automobile accidents than as police officers.”
Being a Black or Colored (as we were called back then) police officer in the 1940s and 50s in segregated Miami was no easy feat. It wasn’t until Sept. 1, 1944, that the first five Blacks were hired to patrol Miami’s Colored areas. They were Ralph White, Moody Hall, Clyde Lee, Edward Kimball and John Milledge. They were given a uniform – white shirt and black pants and a cap, but no guns.
The new recruits were not afforded the same status as white police officers. In fact, the first Blacks officers weren’t even called police officers. Instead, they were called patrolmen and were only allowed to arrest Blacks. Still, McKay and the other Black officers wore the uniform proudly.
Even so, their new jobs had come with certain guidelines, McKay said. “We were told unless a white person committed a felony in our presence, we could not arrest him. We would have to call for white police officers and turn the alleged criminal over to them.”
McKay had been an officer for three years in 1957 before he ever got any official police training.
“Back then, the Police Academy was segregated, and Blacks couldn’t attend. We were given on -the-job training until 1957, when we were sent to Miami-Dade Community College for two weeks of training. The academy was integrated in 1960, and Clarence Dickson was in that class. He later became Miami’s first Black Chief of Police. And today, the academy is named for him..”
In the early days of McKay’s career, Blacks had their own courtroom, housed in the old Negro precinct at Northwest 11th Street and Fifth Avenue in Overtown (now, The Black Police Precinct & Courthouse). The late Judge Lawson E. Thomas presided and when he was on vacation, the late Judge John D. Johnson presided. Later, after Thomas stepped down from the bench, Johnson replaced him.
Those were challenging times for Black officers, McKay said. “We were told there would be no promotions for Blacks. But we kept pushing, and finally it was decided that the department needed some higher-ranking Black officers. The first group to be promoted were Jessie Nash, Luren Bowens, Leroy Smith, Franklin Duty and Clinton Williams. They were all promoted to the rank of sergeant.”
When McKay retired in 1980, he had risen through the ranks to become a lieutenant.
Would he do it again?
“I believe I would do it all over again,” he said. “Being a police officer was a good opportunity for me to help people. Throughout my career I have been able to mentor, not only boys and girls, but also adults. I always found the time to encourage youngsters to stay in school and tell them the value of going to college and getting a good job..”
Aside from his loving family, the things that have kept him young since he retired 45 years ago is his faith and his exercise routine at Jackson North, where he goes twice a week. He is a devout member of First Baptist Church of Bunche Park.
He said when he first retired, he spent a “lot of time watching soap operas. I soon got hooked. Then one day I called a friend and told him, ‘I’m bored. Find me something to do.’ He found me a job in security at a hotel in Coconut Grove. ”
His birthday celebration started Nov. 10 and included a celebration at the old Negro Precinct, with the Booker T. Washington High School Marching Band playing for him. The celebration culminated last weekend with a “Century of Greatness” party on Saturday at the Newport Beachside Hotel & Resort in Sunny Isles Beach, where the band, Rose Entertainment featuring Shenita Hunt, performed. There was lots of food, the Junkanoo Band and remarks from local and national officials.
The celebration culminated last Sunday with a special church service in his honor, and McKay being called up to lead his signature song, “I came to tell you what Jesus said…”
McKay said he would like to write his memoirs sometime in the next century.