The ”60s wasn”t an easy time for anyone to be a police officer. The country was in an uproar: civil disobedience, sit-ins, protest marches.
“All over the state of Mississippi, you had turmoil — the lunch counter, the schools,” remembered Charlie Watkins, former Columbus police chief.
And for blacks who saw police as the enemy, John “BB” Thomas was on the wrong side of the law. The badge and uniform he wore with pride somehow was a sign of betrayal to some. Fellow officers also didn”t think fondly of having the first black policemen among their ranks.
“At the time when John was hired, there was turbulent times and movement all about,” said Assistant Columbus Police Chief Joe Johnson, who remembers Thomas as a “mentor, father and adviser.”
Johnson worked the night shift with Thomas as his lieutenant.
“Hubert Chandler and John Thomas were the first black officers in Columbus, and they had a hard time because they really weren”t accepted either way,” said Pete Bowen, also a former Columbus police chief. “It was a terrible time; it was hard for them in both the black and the white communities.”
It was 1965 when the Columbus City Council went into executive session to discuss a personnel matter, recalled Watkins, who was police chief at the time.
They came out to announce the hiring of two new officers, a pretty routine matter. But soon word got out: the new officers were black.
Thomas would earn the names “trailblazer,” “pioneer” and “warrior of law enforcement,” as Columbus Mayor Robert Smith put it at Thomas” funeral, Saturday.
In 1965, the “trailblazers” were thought of anything but. Both later would earn respect and admiration throughout the community.
“When you saw BB and (Chandler), you better get right,” Johnson laughed.
“He was a good man — raised these kids up,” said George Coleman of Columbus, who retired from the Brooksville Police Department.
Thomas fondly was called the “sheriff of Seventh Avenue,” where he made it his business to keep kids out of trouble.
“He never met a stranger that I ever saw,” said Lowndes County Sheriff Butch Howard, who also said he”d never had a dearer friend.
“If you stood and talked to him, you felt like you knew him your whole life,” he added.
“He was a night man,” Robert “Uncle Bunky” Williams, who worked with Thomas at the Lowndes County Sheriff”s Department, said of him. “He worked at midnight and would go until daybreak.
“He was a good man,” Williams continued. “You could depend on him; he was a very good lawman.”
“He was a good fellow,” agreed Billy Speed, who worked with Thomas.
Billy Speed”s wife, Polly, was Columbus” first female police officer.
“He gave me some good guidance,” said Polly Speed, who, as a rookie, worked the midnight shift with Thomas. “Law enforcement is just a close family. Once you”re in it, you”re always family. You take care of one another.”
Tony Munson, who grew up with John Thomas” son, Ron Thomas, saw John Thomas as a role model, as did K.B. Turner, who now teaches criminology at the University of Memphis.
“John became the centerpiece of the struggle that we both wen through,” said Munson.
Turner followed in John Thomas” footsteps and went into law enforcement.
“I requested the night shift. Why? Because John Thomas worked nights,” said Turner. “I wanted to be just like John Thomas.”
Many at the service remembered John Thomas as a night owl.
“John used to come to my house early in the morning, 2 or 3 o”clock, and ring the — well he wouldn”t ring the bell. He would bang on the door,” said Ed Williams, who worked 25 years with Thomas in Columbus Police Department”s Criminal Investigations Division.
“”What were you doing,”” Thomas would ask.
“”I was asleep. It”s 4 o”clock in the morning,”” Williams laughed and bugged his eyes as if to say, ”What did he think I was doing?”
John Thomas was remembered as a jokester.
“He always liked to joke,” said his son, Ron Thomas.
“In his own way,” he continued. “He was also a very caring person.”
And for all his caring, Ron Thomas sometimes felt neglected by his father.
“He gave so much to the community that we, as a family, kind of felt neglected,” he said. ”But he”s touched do many more lives than just our family.”
Since then, Ron Thomas has come to appreciate all his father did for others.
For each person who at a story to tell at the Lee Middle School auditorium Saturday afternoon, at least one more would just smile and laugh, deferring to someone else for comment.
“Oh, I”ve got some stories I can tell,” exclaimed one gentleman, laughing.
“You”d better talk to this guy,” he added, gesturing to his neighbor.
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