By Brittany Hutson
In a single lifetime, Donald W. Tucker has seen and experienced things that are straight out of a social studies textbook. The Chicago native entered the world of law enforcement when the United States was in the midst of some of its most tensed and violent years–the civil right era. As an undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now known as the DEA), and a U.S. Secret Service Agent, Tucker has experienced everything including the death of Emmett Till, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War. He’s even protected every U.S. president from Lyndon Johnson to George H.W. Bush, as well as Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisholm.
In his new book, “The Two-Edged Sword,” Tucker recounts his rise through the ranks to become one of this country’s prime federal law enforcement administrators and reformers. We spoke to Tucker about his career, fighting discrimination and what went through his mind when he saw Barack Obama become president.
How did you come up with the title of your book, “The Two-Edged Sword?”
In the book I describe a time when I had to defend a black female agent that the secret service was trying to fire over two incidents. At the time, she had only been on the job for a few months and had been recruited from Jackson, MS. She was assigned to the Houston field office. She didn’t have anyone to help her find a place to live, so she ended up renting an apartment in a pretty tough neighborhood. One night, she heard a gunshot. The Houston police came to her apartment and explained that there was a murder in the building. They asked if she heard anything and the agent said she had. The police asked why she hadn’t called the police. She identified herself and told the police she wasn’t sure the noise was a gunshot. The police reported her, saying that she was unprofessional and didn’t really look like a secret service agent.
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There was another incident when the Houston police thought the agent was unprofessional during a meeting with a female clerk. In this case, the agent was going to the police department with two white agents. The white clerk asked the two white agents to show their credentials and they were allowed to pass. When the black agent showed her credentials, the clerk asked for two additional pieces of identification. The agent was obviously upset at being treated differently. She threw down the additional identification and the clerk reported her for being unprofessional.
When the agent told me her story, I couldn’t believe the service was trying to fire her for something like this. Based on my experience with secret service, there were white agents that did things much worse and were never fired. So I went to Washington and met with the assistant director [of the secret service] to defend the agent. She was not fired. I thought the issue was dead until I got my performance evaluation later in the year. It said I was adequate. But when I looked at the evaluation for the Houston office, it said outstanding. I wrote a memo back to Washington and said it was unfair that they were trying to attack me. I said ‘what I see is a two-edged sword, black on one side and white on the other. When the white side strikes down, it’s more lenient to the white agents’ than it is for blacks when the black side [of the sword] comes down.
In the book, you recall instances of blatant racism and discrimination that was committed against you by your superiors and peers. How did you deal in these situations? What made you still want to serve this country?
I’ve always been a strong supporter of this country, but working for the government, I saw the inequalities. I saw how blacks were being treated compared to the white agents. Instead of turning my back and walking away, I felt that maybe the best thing I could do was to stay and fight and try to improve conditions. I think I was successful.
Considering all that you experienced and witnessed throughout your career, what was it like for you to see Barack Obama elected president?
I’m from Chicago. During the 1968 democratic convention, there were riots and police were beating demonstrators in Grant Park. To see Obama give his acceptance speech in Grant Park, it made me flash back to 1968 when all the turmoil and violence was taking place right there in that same park, so it was an ironic and moving period.
When you were in the military, your unit was assigned to go to Oxford, MS to escort James Meredith, the first African American to be admitted to the University of Mississippi. But at the last hour, your captain pulled you out of the mission. What did that feel like?
It was the worst feeling I ever had in my life. I really felt that was a time when black soldiers could prove that they were equal to white soldiers. When my captain told me to fall out, I felt like I was worth nothing. When I was doing research [for the book], I had always thought it was the military because they always had a problem with segregation and how they treated black soldiers. But in doing the research, I came across a recording between John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. They were talking to the governor of Mississippi. I couldn’t believe how they were bargaining, and the biggest bargaining chip was pulling black soldiers out of the mission so they wouldn’t come in contact with the white citizens of Oxford, the same white citizens that were causing so much rioting and violence. Talk about having a different opinion of the Kennedys. A lot of people don’t realize that part of the story.
What would you consider a highlight of your career?
If I had to pick something, I would have to say what I did to help other black agents. Because of the things I did, I think I forced the secret service to establish minority committees for blacks, females, Pacific-Islanders, Asians and Hispanics so that they would treat minority agents the same way they treated white agents. It got to the point where the white agents got so angry, they wanted to have a committee for themselves. That made me feel very good when I left the secret service to know that I did accomplish something.
What would you want your legacy to be?
I would like to be looked at as someone who had no qualms about fighting for what was right. I didn’t consider my paycheck so strong that it would prevent me from speaking out. If I did have to wear a jacket for being a troublemaker for standing up for what I believed, then so be it. I’d wear that jacket proudly.
