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Etienne Caroline, Jr.
Etienne Caroline joined the Riverside City Police Department as a patrol officer and later became the first black detective in the city. He served as a Special Agent for a number of years before finally retiring in 1975 after just under thirty years service.
During his service with Riverside PD he was a member of the security detail guarding President Lyndon Johnson when he spoke at the Riverside County Courthouse, Governor Ronald Reagan during a visit to the city and President Richard Nixon on his arrival and departure from the Riverside Airport.
He was selected as one of a unit assigned to protect presidential candidate George Wallace of Alabama who came to Riverside to speak at the Ramona High School auditorium amid much protest from the Riverside Branch of NAACP. Huge numbers of citizens marched that night in demonstration of their feelings about the stand of candidate Wallace against the admission of black students to the University of Alabama and now running as a candidate for president of the United States.
During the students protest of the Vietnam war, Etienne Caroline suggested to then Police Captain Eugene Fagan of Riverside PD and Professor Paul Hooks of UC Riverside, the idea of the "Police On Campus" program which was put into effect shortly thereafter. This program was effective in helping to quell disturbances at marches by students at the University of California at Riverside and other nearby campuses. It was also influential in improving relations between the community, the students and the police.
The property where Park
Avenue Baptist Church is now
located is the result of
Etienne Caroline's
encouragement of Pastor L.B.
Moss to look into the sale
of the land, a private home
surrounded by an orange
groves, and to buy it. Rev.
Moss and the church body
moved upon the suggestion by
buying the land and
developing it into the
inspirational and spiritual
refuge that it is in the
community today.
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My Mom and I were among the many marchers in the protest against George Wallace.
My Dad was there to protect the presidential candidate.
Later that night, George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama gave my Dad a signed card making him a Honorary State Trooper. Tina Caroline |
