On the recordJuly 29, 2015
I rise with great excitement to congratulate the Houston City Council and our chief, Charles McClelland, for naming our beacon of law enforcement building after Edward Alfred Thomas, the longest serving and greatest patrol officer in the history of the Houston Police Department, so noted by fellow officers. Edward Alfred Thomas was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1920. He played football for Southern University. As well, he was drafted in World War II, where he saw action with the United States Army in Normandy, in northern Africa, and during the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, with his honorable discharge, Edward Thomas became one of the first African American police officers in the city of Houston-- when he started, he could not vote without a poll tax--where he worked for 63 years until his retirement on July 23, 2011. He worked for more than six decades, way before the civil rights movement. His work was not without challenges. Because of his work and because of his race, Officer Thomas was not allowed to drive a squad car or arrest White suspects without obtaining permission from his supervisor. At one point in his career, he was disciplined for speaking to a White meter maid, who asked him to walk with her in order to avoid the unwanted attention and advances of nearby construction workers, just extending himself and doing his job.…
