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Renault Robinson was a Chicago police officer who, as executive director of the Afro-American Patrolmen’s League, took on the city’s power structure by exposing discrimination in hiring practices and the treatment of minority officers.
Following a lawsuit filed by Robinson and the U.S. Justice Department, a federal judge in 1974 found that there had indeed been discrimination against minorities and women in the Chicago Police Department’s testing process for applicants, and imposed hiring goals to remain in effect until the female and minority representation on the police force more accurately reflected the general population.
“Renault was a prophetic servant of humanity who tried to reform the system of police services to the community that he worked in and lived in,” said Howard Saffold, an early member of the Afro-American Patrolmen’s League who later led Mayor Harold Washington’s security detail. “He remains a continuing spirit that says, ‘Let’s keep trying to make it happen.’”
Robinson, 80, died of a blood infection caused by an autoimmune disorder that was the result of cancer treatment on July 8 at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, said his son, Kobie. He had been a Hyde Park resident.
Born in Chicago, Robinson grew up in the Woodlawn neighborhood and attended Corpus Christi elementary school and then Corpus Christi High School for two years. He transferred to Hyde Park High School, from which he graduated in 1960.
Robinson attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two years before returning home and working in his father’s print shop for several years. He was drawn to a career in law enforcement in part by the opportunity to go back to school, said his wife of 60 years, Annette.
So in 1964, Robinson signed on as a Chicago police officer, working undercover in the department’s vice division and earning 28 departmental awards for good service.
With a colleague, Edward “Buzz” Palmer, Robinson in May 1968 cofounded the Afro-American Patrolmen’s League, which he led as president and later as executive director.
The group’s aim, Robinson told the Tribune in 1977, was to boost police relations with the Black community, improve relations between Black and white officers, and work for police reform.
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Department officials branded the league as racist and warned him he would be punished for helping to organize it, Robinson told the Tribune in 1977.
Almost immediately, Robinson said he began to be harassed by fellow officers. He was arrested several times and suspended by the police superintendent, a punishment subsequently upheld by the Chicago Police Board.
He resumed work in May 1971, telling reporters that his suspension was “unjust, illegal and totally unwarranted.”
“I return today unrepentant, unbowed and unafraid,” he said.
Following his allegations of racial discrimination in hiring, promotions and assignments, the U.S. Justice Department sent a team to Chicago to investigate the charges. The probe began in 1972.
Robinson and the DOJ filed their lawsuit a year later, which resulted in a ruling by U.S. District Judge Prentice Marshall that police department exams for patrol officers and sergeants discriminated against Blacks, Latinos and women.
The decision was upheld by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, and after Mayor Richard J. Daley’s death in 1976, his successor, Mayor Michael Bilandic, decided not to appeal the ruling further.
“Renault fought when it was not fashionable or comfortable or even safe being Black,” said Cook County Circuit Judge William Hooks, a longtime friend. “He knew from the beginning that it was going to be a struggle, but he knew how important it was to have a diverse police force.”
The federal action came at some personal cost to Robinson, who went on unpaid leave 1974 while the lawsuit was playing out. He lived on his pay as executive director of the patrolmen’s league, which had chronic financial difficulties.
The patrolmen’s league built credibility with the Black community and was a positive force, said Wylola Evans, a CPD clerk who became the league’s first full-time employee.
“In my capacity of working inside the (patrolmen’s league’s) office, we worked with the community, which at first was leery about working with Black police officers because of the problems they had had with police in the past,” Evans said. “But they started getting to know the police officers, and started coming by the office and feeling comfortable telling us the problems that they had in the past and in some cases, we were able to help them.”
While on leave, Robinson returned to school, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from Roosevelt University and taking doctoral courses at Northwestern University.
After the suit was resolved, Robinson told the Tribune in 1977 that he was ready to move on.
“It’s been worth it to the extent that we helped a lot of people, but it’s not been worth it personally,” he told the Tribune. “It’s caused me a lot of hardship and it’s been tough on my family.”
In September 1977, Judge Marshall ordered the CPD to pay Robinson $75,000 in damages for discriminating against him, along with back pay. In 1983, Marshall awarded Robinson an additional $386,238 in back pay and damages, concluding a 13-year legal action that had begun when Robinson was suspended from the force in 1970 and steps were begun to fire him.
In 1977, Robert McClory wrote a book about Robinson, “The Man Who Beat Clout City.” And in 1978, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded Robinson its annual John D. Rockefeller III award for his work in the area of human rights.
In 1979, Mayor Jane Byrne named Robinson to a nonpaying term on the board of the Chicago Housing Authority. The appointment caught observers off-guard, as Robinson had been a recent critic of the CHA.
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Robinson ran unsuccessfully for Cook County commissioner in 1982. The following year, Mayor Harold Washington named him the paid chairman of the CHA. With the appointment, he quit the police department and stepped down as executive director of the Afro-American Police League.
As CHA chair, Robinson was embroiled in controversies that included allegations of cronyism when he tapped a firm run by a friend and aide to sell the CHA $192,000 worth of paint. Robinson wound up overseeing a restructuring of the CHA’s leadership ranks that resulted in the chair’s role being split into two positions, and Robinson giving up many of his initial duties.
After stepping down as CHA boss in 1987, Robinson worked in the private sector. He worked at a temporary staffing business and then ran a landscaping company until retiring in 2018, his wife said.
In addition to his wife and son, Robinson is survived by three other sons, Renault Jr., Brian and Kivu; 10 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; a brother, Michael; and five sisters, Rochelle Cochran, Arlene Robinson, Cook County Circuit Judge Andrea Buford, Sherrie Beck and Diane Batiste.
A memorial service will take place at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 25, at St. Sabina Catholic Church, 1210 W. 78th Place, Chicago.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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