Renault Robinson was one of Chicago's few black police officers in the 1970s. He was a founder of the Afro-American Patrolmen's League.
We first learned about Robinson from Studs Terkel's book Working. Studs went around the country in the 1970s interviewing people about their jobs. Robinson's interview is one of the most powerful parts of the book. He is incredibly honest and blunt about what it was like to be a black police officer, and about the tensions between the police and the black community.
A few years ago, we interviewed Robinson for our series "Working, Then and Now." When you listen to his words from the 1970s, and from 50 years later, what's most striking is how much things haven't changed.
HOUR SPECIAL: Stories from the Unmarked Graveyard
The Almost Astronaut (Revisited)
The End of Smallpox
Meet Miss Subways
The Gospel Ranger
Mandela's Election: 30 Years Later
Working, Then and Now
My Iron Lung (Revisited)
My So-Called Lungs (Revisited)
The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records
Guest Spotlight: Parakeet Panic
The Drum Also Waltzes
The Unmarked Graveyard: Live at WNYC
The Man on the President's Limo
The Unmarked Graveyard: LaMont Dottin
The Unmarked Graveyard: Hisako Hasegawa
The Unmarked Graveyard: Cesar Irizarry
The Unmarked Graveyard: Dawn Powell
The Unmarked Graveyard: Documenting an Invisible Island
The Unmarked Graveyard: Angel Garcia
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Criminal
Ear Hustle
Song Exploder
The Truth
the memory palace