Louie White

When Louie White joined the Austin Police Department in 1959 , there were only seven black police officers and none of them were allowed to arrest white suspects.

He began his career as a police officer at a time when both the city and the department were deeply mired in pre-Civil Rights-era racism, but he perservered and was promoted to captain, later leading the department's diversity hiring initiative in the 1970s and recruiting a new generation of young, black police officers.

White, one of Austin's first African American police officers and one of the most influential black leaders in the city's history, died Saturday morning at St. David's Medical Center. He was 76.

He served on the force for 29 years and retired in 1988. He remained active in the community until his death, including serving as a board member for the Austin NAACP for two decades.

Local NAACP President Nelson Linder said White rarely missed meetings despite health problems brought on by advancing age, and was even involved in the firefighter union contract negotiations last month.

"He's the single most important black man in this city's history, in terms of being a role model," Linder said. "Capt. White was the model of community policing."

White was born in Mexia, Texas near Waco, the youngest of eight children. He moved to Austin to be with his older sister and later joined the police department, said his niece, Betsy Mayfield.

"I think it was just his love of family and community, and wanting to make things better" that drove him to become a police officer, Mayfield said. "He was really sincere about helping anyone he could." White didn't just fight to enforce the law on the streets of Austin - he had to battle bigotry within the uniformed ranks as well.

When he joined the police department, black officers could only work in East Austin, said Assistant City Manager Mike McDonald , a former officer mentored by White. The word "nigger" was extremely prevalent at cadet school, White told the Austin American-Statesman in 1992.

In 1972, White put himself in the line of fire to save a hostage and was awarded the department's medal of valor. But he didn't get his picture taken at a big ceremony like a white officer would. Instead, his superiors just tossed the medal onto his desk.

"That was the era he came through," McDonald said. "He told stories to all of us to say the challenges we faced were miniscule compared to what the first black and Hispanic officers faced."

In spite of that, White had a decorated career as an officer, earning many awards and commendations. In the 1970s, Chief Frank Dyson placed White in charge of recruiting and training, and he oversaw the hirings and careers of many black officers, including Cathy Ellison, who would go on to become an assistant chief and acting chief before retiring last year.

She said Saturday she remembers how he continually went to bat for the officers he recruited.

"Once he recruited you, he followed your whole career and made sure you were okay," Ellison said. "A lot of us had our careers as long as we did because of what Capt. White did for us."

Ellison said White wasn't the type to go fishing when he retired. After he left the department, he spent the next 20 years following it closely, keeping track of new recruits, and was critical of the department's use of force policies against minorities.

In 2006, he was finally awarded the medal of valor he earned in that hostage situation decades earlier with a proper ceremony.

"Captain White was a man of courage who was known as a trail blazer for others who followed him," said Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo. "He will be sorely missed by the men and women of the Austin Police Department as well as the City of Austin."

Still, his niece Mayfield remembers him as the man who used to come by her mother's house on his breaks and make sure everything was okay at her house.

"I think he made a difference," Mayfield said. "He was one of those special men whom you would hear a lot of men and women say, `I respect him.'"

Patrick George, American-Statesman staff; pgeorge@statesman.com; 445-3851