Hagar Tucker
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1842-1892) Hagar Tucker was the first African American policeman in Fort Worth, notable in 1870s Texas. Born into slavery, he came here from Kentucky in 1857 and was emancipated in 1865. One of the first African Americans in the county registered to vote, he was appointed a "special policeman" in 1873, partly through influence of former master Wm. B. Tucker, then alderman. Hagar was the only Black on the force, one of few until the 1950s. Paid separately from other police, he could only patrol Black neighborhoods. He served a short time, later working other jobs and eventually returning to the Wm. B. Tucker household with his wife Amy and three daughters. (2007)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born into slavery in Kentucky in 1842 and emancipated in 1865, Hagar Tucker became Fort Worth's first African American policeman when he was appointed a "special policeman" in 1873. He was among the first Black residents of the county to register to vote, yet the era's limits were stark: paid separately from white officers, he could patrol only Black neighborhoods and served only a short time. He later worked other jobs and lived with his wife Amy and their three daughters.
Why it matters
Tucker's brief, constrained tenure captures both the promise of Reconstruction and the swift, systematic barriers that followed, a story repeated across the postwar South.
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Related people
- · Hagar Tucker
- · William B. Tucker
Themes & tags
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