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Title
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Lafayette Tillman
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Description
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File containing photos and information on Lafayette Alonzo Tillman, or Lafayette Tillman (1858-1914), the second African American police officer of Kansas City and an early barbershop singer. Native of Indiana coming here in 1880 and opening a restaurant in 1881 at 105 East 12th Street, later working at a barber shop at 11th and Walnut Streets before opening his own at 12th and Grand Avenues. Later performing with the Allen Chapel Choir, serving in the Spanish-American War and "appointed a police officer in Kansas City, Missouri and at the time when there was only one Negro police officer" in about the 1901s.
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Object Type
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Vertical File
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Title
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Early African American Police Officers
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Description
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Book excerpt about Lafayette Tillman, William Davis, Cornelius Carter, and J.J. Mattjoy, early African American police officers of the Kansas City Police Department. Tillman was the second black police officer in Kansas City according to most sources, while Davis was the first, serving from 1874 to about 1899. Tillman was born in Indiana in 1858 and came to Kansas City around 1889 as a barber before serving in the Spanish-American War, and upon his return to the city was hired as a police patrolman. Cornelius "Tug" Carter was born around 1875 and raised in Lawrence, Kansas before working a beat in downtown Kansas City and credited for several arrests of notable crimes starting in 1919. Carter "became the first black sergeant in the Kansas City police department" in 1930 and bought a new house with his wife at 2204 Garfield Avenue. Mattjoy was a juvenile officer who also served as Democratic spokesman for the African American communities in 1919-1920, when he was killed on duty.
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Date
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2006
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Object Type
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Book Section
