George Bodeker

George H. Bodeker was Chief of the Birmingham Police Department from 1904 to 1914.

On November 18, 1910, Bodeker corresponded with Booker T. Washington regarding race, crime and prohibition:

Sir: Yours of November 16th arrived, and in reply beg to advise you that it would be impossible for me to give you the exact figures of crimes committed by the colored people, however, I wish to say that the Prohibition Law as I see it has not benefited the white people or the negores, as Prohibition is a farce wherever it has been tried. I do not see any difference relative to crimes committed by either race. Respectfully, Geo. H. Bodeker, Chief of Police.

His correspondence seems somewhat at odds with his public support for Mayor A. O. Lane's calls for regulation of saloons and his statement that "the negro vagrants cause more trouble in a city than all other criminal classes combined".

As Chief, Bodeker gave rising judicial star Hugo Black a gold watch on his October 22, 1912 retirement from the Birmingham Police Court.

In 1914, Bodeker ran for the office of Jefferson County Sheriff. He was removed from office at the start of the campaign by Commissioner George Ward amid charges that he had accepted bribes from bordellos and gambling houses.

References

• Suitts, Steve. (2005) Hugo Black of Alabama: How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution Montgomery:NewSouth Books. ISBN 1588381447