More than a century has passed since the first Black officer joined the New York City Police Department. Samuel Battle, a son of enslaved people, was born 150 years ago this year. He  joined the force in 1911 and patrolled mostly in Harlem. 

Battle faced taunts and the silent treatment from fellow officers, he told an interviewer in 1960. Still, he was promoted to sergeant and then lieutenant. He would eventually become the first Black appointee to the city parole commission, according to his interview and historical records. 

The NYPD is now 42% white and 16% Black, which is slightly less diverse than the city population as a whole. While the NYPD has made significant strides since Battle’s time, some of the very tensions that existed more than a century ago linger today. Officers of color have sued over discrimination within the department, and spoken about how they’re viewed negatively by some who share their ethnic background. 

Keith Taylor, who is Black, joined the NYPD in 1991 and said for a community whose lives in the U.S. are rooted in slavery, majority white police forces patrolling majority Black neighborhoods could be reminiscent of slave patrols and occupying forces. Battle had to contend with a threatening note left on his bed at the station house, he later said, and dealing with tourists who traveled uptown to gawk at the city’s lone Black police officer.

“Just as Samuel Battle tried to ignore the obvious taunts and behaviors and efforts to diminish his authority as a person, as a police officer, as an American citizen, I think most officers who joined realized that in order for them to be successful in a department, they had to manage the relationships with people that would be hostile sometimes towards them,” Taylor said.