LAPD Honors Georgia Ann Robinson and other significant African Americans in LAPD's History.

Georgia Ann Robinson was the grandmother of Chamber member Nancy Rene, pictured here with Chief of Police, Michael Moore

Born Georgia Ann Hill in Opelousas, Louisiana, on May 12, 1879, Georgia Ann Robinson never knew her parents. Raised by her sister throughout her early years, she moved to Kansas at the age of 18 to work as a governess. There she met and married Morgan Robinson. The couple moved first to Leadville, Colorado and then to Los Angeles with their daughter, Marian.

In Los Angeles, Ms. Robinson’s desire to serve motivated her to get involved with various community organizations and it was through her work with these groups that she was approached and convinced by an LAPD recruiter to join the force.

At the age of thirty-seven, Georgia Ann Robinson became a volunteer for the LAPD. Three years later on June 10, 1919 Mrs. Robinson became the city’s first black policewoman when she was hired as a jail matron. Later, she became involved in juvenile and homicide cases investigated by the department. In her position as an investigator, Mrs. Robinson discovered the need for a woman’s shelter in Los Angeles, and consequently she would help to establish the Sojourner Truth Home for destitute women and girls.

Mrs. Robinson’s time with the LAPD would come to an abrupt end when, at the age of forty-nine, she tried to break up an altercation between two drunken women in her jail. In the resulting fight, Mrs. Robinson suffered a devastating head injury that left her permanently blind. Mrs. Robinson subsequently retired. When in 1954, Ebony Magazine asked about her injury and her police career, Mrs. Robinson said, “I have no regrets. I didn’t need my eyes any longer. I had seen all there was to see.”

Far from retreating into a quiet retirement. Mrs. Robinson continued to serve her community. She worked with community leaders, including Dr. Claude Hudson, longtime president of the Los Angeles branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in their efforts to desegregate Los Angeles schools and beaches, and she continued her work with women in the shelter she’d helped to found.

Georgia Ann Robinson died on September 12, 1961, at 82 years old.

The article, written by Julia Bricklin, first appeared in California History, a publication of the California Historical Society.