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Sherry/1931
Pegue/1946
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John Milledge
- Nov. 01, 1946 -
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(295)
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Resided: |
FL, USA
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Born: | May. 06, 1898 |
Fallen: | Nov. 01, 1946 |
Race/Sex: | Black Male / 48 yrs. of age |
| Agency |
Dept: | Miami Police Dept. - FL
400 NW 2nd Avenue Miami, FL
33128 USA (305)603-6640 |
County: | Miami-Dade |
Dept. Type: | Municipal/Police |
Hero's Rank: | Patrolman |
Sworn Date: | 9/1944 |
FBI Class: | Homicide - Ambush |
Agency URL: | Click Here
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Bio: John Milledge, 47, was born on May 6, 1898, in Bamberg, S. Carolina, to John and Martha Nabuint Milledge. The 1910 and 1920 SC. censuses indicated that his family had deep roots in SC as his father (1883) and mother (1884) were both born in S.C. as were their parents (probably as slaves since the Civil War ended in 1865). The census also indicated that John was the third of ten children (Leslie, Mezelle, John, Martha, Pleasant, Nettie May, Esther, Rooddy, Emma and Queen).
John grew up in the Denmark/Bamberg area (in Bamberg County just south of Orangeburg) and attended elementary school at Voorhees Industrial School from 1904 to around 1913. When established in 1897 (as the Denmark Industrial School), Voorhees Industrial School provided the first formal educational opportunities for the black children of Bamberg County. Students were taught the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and etiquette. Skills such as brick masonry, carpentry, the basic rudiments of agriculture science and nursing were also taught. The enrollment grew from 14 to 270 in the school's initial years. (Voorhees College brochure, 1994)
In 1922 Voorhees Industrial School became Voorhees College, an historically black college affiliated with the Episcopal Church and the United Negro College Fund.
John Milledge left Voorhees School around 1913 and was involved in farm work for several years. In 1925, John, 27, married Edna Johnson, 17, of Denmark. The couple moved to Miami after the wedding in SC. with the Miami City directory first listing them in 1925. John's occupation was listed over a 21-year period (1925-1946) as "helper," "chauffeur," "laborer," and finally as "city policeman." The Miami Daily News reported that "Milledge was chauffeur, yard boy, and body-guard for a Coral Gables attorney for 18 years." Those who remember John Milledge report that he also had his own lawn care business.
A son, Leroy Milledge, was adopted by the couple shortly after his birth on March 18, 1925, in Philadelphia. Leroy was the natural son of Edna's brother, Murray Johnson. The boy died in a drowning accident in Etonville near Maitland in Orange County, FL, on April 19, 1942, at the age of 17. The drowning occurred while Leroy was in boarding school for the 1941-42 academic year at the Hungerford School in Maitland.
In 1939 John and Edna Milledge moved into the new Liberty City Housing Project at 14th Ave. and 62nd St. In 1942 Milledge and Ralph White (who also worked with Milledge in his lawn care business) were two of the men selected by James E. Scott to serve as auxiliary police officers for the housing complex. They patrolled the complex for 2-3 hours at night and longer on Friday and Saturday nights. Milledge and White were also involved in Civil Defense activities in the black community during World War II.
The Civil Defense and auxiliary police experience led to Milledge and White being named two of Miami's first black officers. John Milledge was one of the five original black police officers of the Miami Police Department who were sworn in on Sept. 1, 1944. Miami's all-white police force had lost many of its officers to the armed services during World War II.
The "negro" precinct's streets were filled with gambling and prostitution and black leaders were demanding that the police force clean up the community. Representatives of the U.S. Army threatened to withdraw troops from Miami if Miami police could not protect black servicemen who were being victimized by the criminal element in black areas. Overtown was plagued by several gangs that victimized other blacks and by white-on-black police brutality and thus black leaders drew up a list of mature men with ties to the community and asked the city to appoint them to the police department.
In a Nov. 6, 1989, article about the first black officers the Miami Herald quoted Dr. Arthur Chapman, a U.M. historian who wrote a doctoral dissertation (The History of the Black Police Force and Court in The City of Miami) on the city's black justice system. Blacks' efforts to join the force had been rebuffed since 1903, but this time chance intervened: A labor scandal forced longtime Police Chief Leslie Quigg to resign in May, 1944. "Quigg had sworn never to allow a black on the force," Chapman said. Later he ran for City Commission on a platform of stemming the "black menace," so he wasn't very amenable to the change. Quigg was replaced by Charles Nelson, a grizzled New York cop more open to the idea. Nelson and Public Safety Director Dan Rosenfelder soon agreed to black appointments, but only after the men were carefully prepared. Three prominent black community leaders---James E. Scott, head of the new Liberty Square housing project, the Rev. John Culmer of St. Agnes Episcopal Church and dentist Ira C. Davis---nominated candidates. They then fanned out to inform the five they had been chosen to break the color barrier. (Miami Herald, 11/6/1989) Fearing white outrage at the appointment of black police officers, department and city leaders arranged for the first black officers to be trained in secret at the Liberty Square Recreation Center. James E. Scott stood guard outside while the five recruits "studied criminal investigation, law, first aid, pistol shooting and self-defense with a jovial white sergeant named Raymond Tanner."
The five were sworn in on Sept. 1, 1944, but were anything but equal to white officers. They were not allowed to arrest whites, rode on bicycles rather than in police cars, were allowed only to patrol the "Negro precinct", and were not allowed to wear their uniforms to the courthouse. The police were "housed in a dingy back room just big enough for a desk and a closet, in a back alley off Second Avenue." However, they did wear the same uniforms and received the same pay as white Miami police officers but, unlike the white officers, the black officers were not under civil service protection and received no pension, retirement benefits or job protection.
The black community expected the new black officers to be more concerned about the young toughs who "ruled the streets" of Overtown. The officers set out to accomplish their task with what would be viewed in 1995 as illegal tactics. The Miami Herald described how those tactics worked. (Note: the quotation is from 1947 when local newspapers used demeaning terms and language when referring to blacks.) It was a still, sultry night in October, 1944, a month after the Miami negro police force was organized. On N.W. second ave., near Ninth st., a well-dressed negro couple was strolling down the sidewalk. They were forced to halt when they came to a group of hee-hawing, shirt-sleeved young bucks who blocked the way. "Pardon me," said the well-dressed man, "could we get by, please?" The group stopped laughing, and half a dozen pairs of glaring eyes turned on the couple. "So, you wants by," a zootsuited character sneered. "Yeah, they wants by," another smirked. Just at that moment a tall, black man in a shiny, blue police uniform planted his ample feet near the group. "Clear the sidewalk!" he ordered. The zoot-suited character turned and looked the cop over. "Haw, haw," he laughed. "Haw, haw, haw," the others took up the chorus. That, probably, was the last time anyone of this group ever laughed in the face of John Milledge, Miami's first negro policeman. Before the chorus had time to take a second breath, the six-foot cop, wielding a couple of strands of rawhide looped over the handle end of a night stick, waded in. In rapid succession he stung the legs of the squealing and frightened youths. They vanished in several directions. That was the beginning of the end of the negro section's toughs who used to block the sidewalks for decent members of their race, and cursed or struck them if they appeared not to like this treatment. (Miami Herald, 1/21/1947)
Of the original five black officers, three (Ralph White, Moody Hall and Clyde Lee) served out their time on the force until retirement while one (Ed "Tops" Kimball) quit to play baseball with the barnstorming black Yankees. John Milledge was the fifth---he was killed after two years as a police officer. |
Survived by: |
and by several siblings around Denmark, SC.
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Fatal Incident Summary
Offender: |
Leroy Strachan
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Location: |
Miami - Overtown,
FL
USA
Fri. Nov. 01, 1946
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Summary: |
Miami Police Officer John Milledge, 49, was shot and killed on Nov. 1, 1946, by a single shot from a .22 caliber rifle slug while he stood near the entrance of Dorsey Park in Overtown. In 1944 Officer Milledge became one of the first five black officers hired in Dade County. He became the 17th Miami officer and the first black officer in the history of Dade County to be killed in the line of duty. His killer was arrested 43 years later and sentenced to time served in pretrial detention (i.e., 19 months) and probation.
The events leading to the death of Officer Milledge began when several youths tried to climb over the 10 foot concrete wall surrounding Dorsey Park (at 17th St. and N.W. 1st Ave.) on Friday evening, Nov. 1, 1946, to see a football game between the segregated black high schools of Gainesville (Lincoln) and Miami (Dorsey). Three of the 19 black Miami police officers were on duty at the game. Officer Milledge chased the "gatecrashers" away (and according to the confession of the "shooter," hit a couple of the boys with his nightstick). The youths then left the area "cursing Milledge over their shoulders."
One of the youths was 17 year old Leroy Strachan, "a chubby kid with a bad eye." Strachan and the other boys went to one boy's house about three blocks away and got a .22 rifle. Leroy and another boy had used the rifle earlier in the day for target practice at Dorsey Park (shooting at cans by the concrete wall around the park). Leroy carried the rifle back to Dorsey Park accompanied by the other boys.
When the boys got within sight of the park entrance and saw Officer Milledge, Strachan told the other boys to get back and aimed the rifle at the officer and fired one shot while standing in an alley between two Overtown houses. The bullet struck Milledge "square in the throat as he stood near the ticket booth at the entrance of the Park." After seeing the officer fall to the ground as a result of the gunshot, Strachan and the other boys fled.
According to local newspapers, another "Negro" officer, James Washington, was in the bleachers when he heard the shot and saw Milledge fall. He rushed to the fallen officer, saw that he was seriously wounded (blood was pouring from his neck), flagged down a passing motorist, and transported Milledge to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Milledge died 20 minutes later at the hospital.
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Disposition: |
Arrested 43 years later and sentenced to time served in pretrial detention (i.e., 19 months) and probation. |
Source: |
Book Excerpted in part or in whole from Dr. Wilbanks book-
FORGOTTEN HEROES: POLICE OFFICERS KILLED IN DADE COUNTY, FL, 1895-1995
by William Wilbanks
Louisville: Turner Publications
1996
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