Who Is Abraham Bolden, The First Black Secret Service Agent On A Presidential Detail Who President Biden Pardoned?
April 28,
Abraham Bolden maintained his innocence for 60 years before President Joe Biden used one of his first pardons on the first Black Secret Service agent assigned to a presidential detail.
Bolden, who served on the security detail for former President John F. Kennedy and, according to the Chicago Tribune,warned the service of its lax security practices, was charged in for attempting to sell a Secret Service file to a group of counterfeiters.
Bolden&#;s first trial ended in a hung jury, but he was convicted in a retrial on the word of witnesses who later admitted they lied at the prosecutor&#;s request. The Chicago native served three years in federal prison before being released.
After Bolden was released, he wrote a book saying he was retaliated against for speaking out against the agency&#;s racist behavior. Bolden added the racism he faced in the Secret Service included enduring racial slurs from other agents and finding nooses left around the workspace.
Bolden told the Tribune about the day Kennedy personally a
Abraham Bolden ( )
Abraham Bolden, often erroneously referred to as the first Black Secret Service Agent, was, in fact, the first Black agent assigned to the prestigious White House Detail. Bolden was born to Daniel and Ophelia Bolden in East St. Louis, Illinois, on January 19, He graduated from East St. Louis’s Lincoln High School in and attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, on a music scholarship, graduating cum laude in After graduation, Bolden married his longtime friend and schoolmate Barbara L. Hardy. The marriage lasted 49 years until her death on December 27, The couple had three children.
In , Bolden became the first African American to be employed as a detective by the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He then served as an Illinois State Highway Patrolman. In October , Bolden joined the US Secret Service, becoming their second Black agent (after Charles L. Gittens, who was hired in ). Bolden was assigned to investigate counterfeiting cases.
On April 28, , President John F. Kennedy, after a brief conversation with Bolden in Chicago, had him join the White House Secret Service Presidential Protective Division. From June 6, , to July 6, , Bol
The Echo from Dealey Plaza: The true story of the first African American on the White House Secret Service detail and his quest for justice after the assassination of JFK
A gripping and unforgettable true story of bravery and patriotism in the face of bitter hatred.
Abraham Bolden was a young African American Secret Service agent in Chicago when he was asked by John F. Kennedy himself to join the White House Secret Service detail. For Bolden, it was a dream come true–and an encouraging sign of the charismatic president’s vision for a new America.
But the dream quickly turned sour. Bolden found himself regularly subjected to open hostility and blatant racism, and he was appalled by the White House team’s irresponsible approach to security. In the wake of JFK’s assassination, Bolden sought to expose the agency’s negligence, only to find himself the victim of a sinister conspiracy. The Echo from Dealey Plaza is the story of the terrible price paid by one man for his commitment to truth and justice.
Spartacus Educational
Primary Sources
(1) Jim Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy ()
An ex-Marine named Thomas Arthur Vallee, who was a member of the right-wing John Birch Society and a vocal Kennedy critic, was arrested by the Secret Service in Chicago. Vallee was discovered to have an M-1 rifle, a handgun, and three thousand rounds of ammunition in his car. It was also learned that Vallee had asked for time off from his job on November 2, the date Kennedy was to visit Chicago. Despite the weapons found, Vallee was released from custody on the evening of November 2 and was still considered a threat. Yet no word of the Vallee matter was transmitted to Dallas.
One of the strangest stories to come out of the Secret Service at this time, however, concerned the first black man to serve on the Service's White House detail. Abraham Bolden was personally selected by Kennedy, apparently in an attempt to integrate the previously all-white Secret Service detail.
Born in poverty, Bolden had been a police officer with an outstanding record before joining the Service. However, Bolden criticized the White House detail for laxity and was transferred to the Chicago office.
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