Courageous 12 Officer, Scout Leader Freddie Johnson (FL)

[RememberSchiff 3662]

ST. PETERSBURG — Freddie Lee Crawford, a former law enforcement professional who fought the City of St. Petersburg for equality in the workplace, died last Friday, May 17 at Palms of Pasadena Hospital with his family by his side. He was 81.

In 1965, Crawford, along with black officers Adam Baker, Raymond DeLoach, Charles Holland, Leon Jackson, Robert Keys, Primus Killen, James King, Johnnie B. Lewis, Horace Nero, Jerry Styles and Nathaniel Wooten filed a landmark lawsuit against the St. Petersburg  for discrimination on the police force. 

Due to their efforts to desegregate  the Police Department,  they would be called the Courageous 12,  but they also fought to desegregate the BSA locally.

Crawford and other black police officers organized a Boy Scouts troop in the black community. The national Boy Scouts organization dodged the issue of desegregation by leaving it to local councils to decide on whether or not to admit black children.

Some councils admitted black youth but prohibited them from wearing the scout uniform. Fulwood remembers Boy Scout officials in Richmond, Va., once threatened to stage a public burning of Scout uniforms if black boys were permitted to wear them.

“Freddie and a small group of black police went through a long obstacle course to get our charter as Troop 206, or was it 202,” said Fulwood, who couldn’t quite recall.

He remembered the troop’s first camping trip in the late 60s to an unincorporated area of Pinellas Park near Clearwater. The officers were doing all of this on their own time, stealing time away from being on duty.

“Once we were all camped down, Freddie and the other police officers left to go back to duty about 10 miles away. We were in an all-white area at the time, tolerated intruders on the strength of police officers – even if they were ‘colored.’ At least it was the harmless activity of camping to ‘rehabilitate some colored boys.’  “

On that fateful day, one of the boys set the woods on fire trying to light a cigarette. Fire trucks and police cars came from all over the county. Crawford, King, and other black cops came racing from St. Pete.

“We never went camping again. I’m surprised, in hindsight, that they were not fired,” Fulwood said.

From that point on, there were no more camping trips for the young men...on to boxing at PAL

Scout Salute and Farewell,

More at source

http://theweeklychallenger.com/courageous-12-freddie-crawford-funeral-set-for-june-1/

Edited May 30, 2019 by RememberSchiff
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[mrkstvns 486]

Fascinating post!

It sometimes surprises me that so little has been written about the experience of black youth in BSA.  I suppose part of the reason for that is that the organization was formed without racial divides and black youth were allowed to join units right from the inception.

Interestingly, there was a de facto segregation that happened in the south.  Some insight to this can be found in the following article:
https://blackthen.com/first-negro-boy-scout-troop-formed-in-elizabeth-city-north-carolina/