Being Black in Lincoln: Albert Maxey recalls his days walking the beat

Sometimes Maxey would be assigned to Havelock — a sometimes rough, working-class neighborhood in northeast Lincoln. There, he had three tasks: Check the locks on businesses, ensure neighborhood bars were up to code and keep the peace. And he was strict about enforcing the rules, the law.

Consequently, Maxey often entered the Havelock bars to a chorus of slurs, to drunken patrons hurling the N-word his way. On many occasions, he said, he physically grabbed violently drunk patrons, dragged them outside to a phone booth and brought in other officers to collect them.

One day, Maxey was summoned to speak with his superiors. They told him he was being pulled off the Havelock beat. The reason: There were rumors that some neighborhood residents planned to kill him.

Maxey doesn’t believe his conduct was substantially different than his white counterparts.

“I think they did the same things I did,” Maxey said. “I just think I was treated differently.”

But in many ways, it was similar to the way he grew up, to what he experienced in college. By then, Maxey knew being Black in Lincoln required constant vigilance and caution. From childhood on, he knew every day would require careful navigation to make it to the end safely — because of the color of his skin.

So, Maxey and those close to him worked tirelessly to make Lincoln a better community, if not for themselves, then for their children.