Robert Stewart, One Of LAPD's First Black Officers, Ceremoniously Reinstated; Department Had Refused To Rehire Him After Acquittal For Assault
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Robert Stewart, one of the first Black men to join the LAPD, has been ceremoniously reinstated after being unjustly fired in 1900.
Stewart joined the LAPD in 1889 and served honorably, but lost his job in 1900 after being charged, tried, then acquitted of assaulting a 15-year-old girl. But even though he was ultimately found not guilty, the LAPD refused to rehire him.
He spent the rest of his life as a laborer and janitor before he died in 1931.
This week, the Los Angeles Police Commission reinstated Stewart, who was also honored by the Los Angeles City Council, who adjourned its Wednesday meeting in his honor.
"The LAPD is taking steps to correct the record, and the record that should be desperately corrected," Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley Thomas said. "As we near the close of African American Heritage month, I believe we both must celebrate the contributions of trailblazing African Americans such as Officer Stewart, as well as acknowledge the perpetuation of unjust systems, the advancement of institutional racism."
LAPD Chief Michael Moore said Stewart's reinstatement is a chance for the department to acknowledge the errors of the department's past.
"This has been an effort for the last year, year-and-a-half, as we looked at our 150th anniversary," Moore said. "Researchers, historians brought to us the fact that this tragic story, this injustice, what I believe was part of the systemic racism within the Los Angeles Police Department in the early 1900s, that resulted in a man who came to this profession honorably," he said.
Moore said he is also requesting that the roll call room at the Central Division Station, where Stewart worked, be named in his honor.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
