TMJ4 is celebrating Black History Month. Andrea Williams highlighted the legacy of the late Felmers Chaney. He served as Milwaukee’s first Black police sergeant, President of NAACP Milwaukee Branch, and President of the historic North Milwaukee State Bank. She visited his home 20 years ago, and incorporated audio from that conversation.
“I’m Felmers Chaney. I’ve been in Milwaukee since 1941. I’m a World War II veteran, was in England and France, and since that, I’ve worked in a tannery, I couldn’t stand that, so my barber kept saying, Hey, why don’t you join the police department? So I took the exam, so then I was at the police department for 36 years.”
Civil rights leader Felmers Chaney was Milwaukee’s first Black police sergeant. He moved to Milwaukee from his family’s farm in Spooner, Wisconsin.
“Milwaukee was a lot different than my home in Spooner, Wisconsin, and there we never got called names, and we were the only blacks there at the time,” said Chaney.
His nieces, Sharon and Debra Skinner, beam with pride for all that he accomplished in his 95 years.