Police Officer, Samuel Battle and the Shattering of the Color Line in New York

The Gist of Freedom is pleased to welcome Arthur Browne, author of One Righteous Man:Samuel Battle and the Shattering of the Color Line in New York!

In this Sept. 4, 1941 file photo, Lt. Samuel Battle gets a kiss from his 4-year-old granddaughter, Yvonne, at City Hall, where he was sworn in as the city's first black parole commissioner.  AP Photo, File

In his latest book, Browne — who currently serves as the Daily News editorial page editor — presents a biography of New York City’s first African-American police officer. Based on an unfinished manuscript by Langston Hughes and Browne’s own research, “One Righteous Man” tells the story of Samuel Battle’s groundbreaking rise through the ranks of the NYPD, a decades-long odyssey that is both the story of one man’s unwavering dedication to racial progress and a harbinger of the divisions between police and the communities they serve that plague America today.