BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : THE LEGACY OF MACON SHERIFF AMERSONM - FINDS HOME IN D,C.

                       BLACK         SOCIAL              HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Legacy of Macon Sheriff Amerson finds home in D.C.

By JEFF THOMPSON
Managing Editor

Personal artifacts that tell the story of former Macon Sheriff Lucius Amerson were recently donated to the new National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington D.C. The above picture includes Amerson's .357 Colt revolver burned in a car accident that hospitalized Amerson and a personal letter of congratulations from Vice-President Hubert Humphrey.

Some Tuskegee residents still remember the election of Macon County Sheriff Lucius Amerson in 1966, the first black sheriff elected in the Deep South since the Reconstruction Era.

They may remember because national media swarmed the event, which nipped at the heels of the 1965 Voting Rights Act many in Macon County had given so much to.

They may remember Sheriff Amerson personally, as a fair man. They may recall the day he stood up to white Alabama State Troopers in 1968. They may even remember his death in 1990.

Those memories are fading slowly as generations pass, but come 2013 they will have a permanent home in Washington D.C. as part of the new National Law Enforcement Museum.

Sheriff Amerson’s son, 43-year-old Anthony Amerson of Washington D.C., recently donated a wealth of his father’s artifacts to the new museum, which is scheduled to break ground next year in D.C.’s Judiciary Square.

Among the donated items are Sheriff Amerson’s gold badges, old uniforms, letters of congratulations from dignitaries, yellowed and crumbling newspaper and magazine clippings and a charred .357 Colt revolver – the sheriff’s weapon of choice incinerated in a severe car accident.
“Most people would probably remember the crash,” Anthony Amerson said of his father’s legacy in Tuskegee.

During one of Lucius Amerson’s campaign years, Anthony said an individual escaped from the State Youth Services Department in Mt. Meigs and led law enforcement officials on wild car chase down rural roads, eventually into Macon County.

Sheriff Amerson and his deputy, Junior Taylor, caught up to car while it was speeding through downtown Tuskegee on Highway 80. But a tractor trailer in front of the vehicles led to a fiery crash and burns and a broken hip for Lucius Amerson.

Anthony Amerson said his father was hospitalized after the accident and missed the remainder of the campaign season, but voters reelected him. In fact, Lucius Amerson was elected five consecutive times, from 1966 to 1988.

“There were a lot of people down there who had a lot of love for my father,” Anthony Amerson said.

Anthony said his father’s legacy is directly connected to Tuskegee and the people he helped protect during a time of turbulent racial prejudice. And thankfully for the legacy of one of Tuskegee’s heroes, his father saved everything.

Lucius Amerson was trying to put together a memoir and had boxed up 40 years of important notes and items that found their way to Anthony after Lucius’s death. Anthony Amerson finished his father’s book, which published in 2004 under the title “Great Courage.”

Going one step further, Anthony said he donated the collection hoping the museum will provide a controlled environment for preservation of the artifacts and a learning environment for the preservation of Sheriff Amerson’s history. Museum officials said the exhibit with his father’s artifacts will be a large part of the civil rights section of the museum.

“One of the important American stories that came from the Civil Rights Movement was the emergence of black Americans in law enforcement,” said Kevin Morison, Communications Director for the National Law Enforcement Museum. “Having Sheriff Amerson’s objects as part of that story help bring it to life.

“It will be a major element of that portion of the museum, partly because the story is so significant.”

Museum officials anticipate more than 200,000 visitors per year after the museum opens in 2013 and Anthony, a procurement analyst with the Department of Homeland Security, is now helping the museum with fundraising.

“My hope in this donation is for the preservation of his artifacts and the sharing of his story, which is part of Tuskegee’s story,” Anthony said. “You can’t tell the story of my father without telling the story of Tuskegee.”