Public Men in Glass Houses: Herbert Jenkins and the Reshaping of the Atlanta Police Department Open Access

Abstract

From 1947 to 1972, the Atlanta Police Department operated under the command of Herbert T. Jenkins. Jenkins, a third-generation policeman who had begun his career as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, would, over his twenty-five-year tenure, undergo an extensive ideological transformation, becoming one of America’s most liberal police chiefs. He embarked on a campaign of modernization and reform, seeking to transform the department into a national exemplar of progressive and community-oriented policing. He was the only law enforcement officer to serve on the Kerner Commission, the national body that in 1968 stunned the nation with its verdict condemning white racism as the cause of civil unrest. Jenkins worked with presidents, mayors, and activists throughout his career, serving as a crucial ally to Atlanta’s center-left establishment. Despite this, he is almost entirely absent from the historical record. This thesis is a biographical account of Jenkins and his influence, utilizing a number of Atlanta archives, Jenkins’ own writings, and quantitative text-mining approaches.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1

Chapter 1: The Code of Gentlemen………………………………………………………..8

Chapter 2: Agents of Organized Society…………………………………………………33

Chapter 3: The Tranquil Banner…………………………………….……………………59

Chapter 4: Prevention is Better than Cure…………………………………………...……91

Chapter 5: The Law, Always True and Just…………………………………………......122

Epilogue 5: I am a Policeman ………………….……………………………………......137

Bibliography ………………….……………………………………................................141

Tables and Figures

Figure 1:

Table 1: TF-IDF on Atlanta Newspapers……………………………………………….124

Table 2: “Crime” proximity analysis……………………………………………………127

Figure 2: Network Analysis, Jenkins Corpus 1960-1969……………………………….129

Figure 3: Atlanta and National Crime Trends, 1967…………………………………….130

Table 3: Atlanta Crime Prevention Bureau Results……………………………………..132

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	History
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	History, United States
Keyword	Georgia Law Enforcement Atlanta Police Police Black Power Atlanta Civil Rights Jenkins
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Joe Crespino, Emory University
Committee Members	Jo Guldi, Emory University Carl Suddler, Emory University

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