The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
FORMER POLICE OFFICER AWARDED MLK HONOR
Efforts helped open police, fire services across state to women and minorities
HARTFORD — Ted Meekins, an iconic Bridgeport cop who helped lead successful court fights that forced cities throughout the state to accept women and minorities in local fire and police departments, won a state honor Monday during the annual commemoration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
During a two-hour birthday celebration in the state Capitol that featured singing from the Yale University Gospel Choir and the annual ringing of the state’s replica of the Liberty Bell by Gov. Ned Lamont, Meekins recalled that there were only a handful of minority police officers and no women or Latinos when he joined the department in 1969.
That changed after Meekins helped organize the Bridgeport Guardians, the group of minority officers who eventually won a $6 million lawsuit against the city in the fight for racial equality in the state’s largest city.
“I never attained rank,” he told about 150 people gathered inside the north entrance of the State Capitol. “I had a college degree. I went to court, won every court battle, but I never got promoted. But we were able to get others hired — blacks, Hispanics — and opened the door so that women could be hired. Dr. King gave us all an opportunity to stand when others wanted us to be invisible; when others wanted you not to be seen or heard. As a result of his standing, I had to stand. As a result of his standing, we had to
make sure that he did not stand alone. We have a lot of work to do.”
Meekins’ attempt to change the hiring landscape took its toll. He was fired twice and suspended five times during that fight. With the help from lawyers at Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, he sued the city in state and federal courts.
“It was like seeing a mountain that couldn’t be moved,” said Meekins, now 80 and enjoying life as a great-grandfather. “You’d file complaints and just get lip service,” he said in a recent interview.
That was until one of those suits landed on the desk of the late Chief U.S. District Judge T. F. Gilroy Daly in 1978. Soon things would never be the same again.
Following a trial, Daly found widespread discrimination in the Bridgeport Police Department against black officers in their hiring, assignments, promotions, testing and discipline. In a series of rulings, Daly forced the department to rotate black officers out of primarily minority neighborhoods and into specialized units. He ordered that minorities be placed in acting supervisory positions. He changed the testing-result procedures, and required a percentage of hires to be minority as reflected by the city’s population.
More importantly the judge appointed William H. Clendenen, a New Haven lawyer, as a special master to oversee these changes and insure discipline was meted out fairly. Clendenen spent nearly 25 years at that job.
On Monday ,the state’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission gave Meekins, a member of the National Black Police Officers Hall of Fame, its Leadership Award, one of the most-prestigious state honors on the birthday celebrating one of the greatest fighters for racial equality.
“This is a special day for me particularly considering what America is going through now,” said Meekins, who met King, Rosa Parks, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, Andrew Young and Muhammad Ali during his battle for civil rights. “I did my best to encourage changing culture so our young people could aspire higher, so our women could apply for these jobs, so our men would be treated fairly and that a community of color could be integrated into our society for the betterment of everyone.”
Meekins’ battles did not stop with the Bridgeport Police Department. He advised and encouraged the Bridgeport Firebirds, a group of minority firefighters and the Housing Authority constables to sue for fair treatment. He offered advice to black civil servants in Stratford and other cities. He founded and headed the East End Community Council, which became a political action group for that section of the city and provides turkeys at Thanksgiving and presents during the annual Santa’s Last Stop on Christmas Day.
It wasn’t just Meekins who was subjected to inflammatory attacks and discriminatory punishment. In 2007 Joe Anne Simmons-Meekins, his wife, who was also a Bridgeport police officer and who attended Monday’s event, found a hangman’s noose under her police cruiser. That led to an FBI investigation and then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell signing a law making such acts hate crimes.
“What Ted has done with his life not only makes him an icon, but a state treasure,” said Bobby Ramos, a retired Stratford police officer, radio host and MLK Holiday commissioner. “His work opened the doors throughout the state for men and women of color. He led the battle and walked the walk.”
Ramos said Meekins was his inspiration for forming the Stratford Guardians.
Also recognized on Monday were Jaylee Carles, a Manchester High School student given the commission’s Community Service Award; Hartford area tennis coach Phil Gordon, the Humanitarian Award; and the Connecticut Youth Forum, an outreach affiliate of the Connecticut Forum, received the Distinguished Service Award.
In emotional remarks, Donna E. Campbell, who chairs the holiday commission, said that the arrival of the King holiday coincides with and highlights the divisions in the nation. “America has a heart problem,” she told the crowd. “America, it’s time to get our hearts right.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal built on Campbell’s remarks and said he was prepared to take her message to Washington, where on Tuesday the Senate is scheduled to start the trial over President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“This day has never been more important,” Blumenthal said, praising the turnout for the event. “We need light and love in this moment in our history more than ever before. The forces of racial and religious animosity and hatred, bias and bigotry are unfortunately stronger than at any time in recent history. The divisions stoked from the top, the hatreds and animosities encouraged by the top leadership of this country, we need to counter with light and love, not with hatred or darkness.”