{"id":31154,"date":"2022-04-27T02:39:08","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T02:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=31154"},"modified":"2022-04-27T02:39:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T02:39:08","slug":"chicagoan-abraham-bolden-first-black-secret-service-agent-on-a-presidential-detail-pardoned-by-biden-nearly-60-years-after-conviction-chicago-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/27\/chicagoan-abraham-bolden-first-black-secret-service-agent-on-a-presidential-detail-pardoned-by-biden-nearly-60-years-after-conviction-chicago-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicagoan Abraham Bolden, first Black Secret Service agent on a presidential detail, pardoned by Biden nearly 60 years after conviction \u2013 Chicago Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nearly 60 years after his conviction on what he claimed were racist and retaliatory federal charges, the first Black U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to a presidential detail has been pardoned by President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Chicagoan Abraham Bolden, 87, who served on the security detail for President John F. Kennedy, was among 78 people granted pardons or commutations of their sentences on Tuesday as part of Biden\u2019s first use of his executive clemency powers.<\/p>\n

Bolden, who\u2019d warned about lax security practices around the president, was charged in 1964 with attempting to sell a copy of a Secret Service file to a ring of counterfeiters. His first trial ended in a hung jury, and after he was convicted in a retrial, key witnesses said they lied at the prosecutor\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

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Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden is seen outside the court at the Federal Building in Chicago on July 7, 1964, where he was being tried for attempting to sell government investigative reports. He continued to maintain his innocence. <\/span>(George Quinn \/ Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A longtime resident of Chicago\u2019s South Side, Bolden served about three years in federal prison. He has long maintained his innocence and wrote a book in which he argued he was targeted for speaking out against racist and unprofessional behavior in the Secret Service.<\/p>\n

Bolden on Tuesday recalled when Kennedy asked him to join his security detail. He said he was denied to see the president but Kennedy approached him, asking if there had ever been a \u201cNegro\u201d on the White House detail.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, he treated me like a son,\u201d Bolden told reporters at his home on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He also recalled the head of the White House detail\u2019s racism, calling Bolden the N-word and being bothered by the way Kennedy treated him, Bolden said.<\/p>\n

He said President Kennedy \u201cmeant to bring American people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe felt that that was his mission,\u201d Bolden said. \u201cBut he also understood that his life was in jeopardy. I could see it in his eyes. He was afraid of being assassinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolden said he swore to give his life for the president and he did, but he said his experience helped him gain spirituality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in prison but prison never got in me,\u201d Bolden said. \u201cI used that time to study, make myself approved in the eyes of God and learn something where humanity could progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement announcing the clemencies, Biden said, \u201cAmerica is a nation of laws and second chances, redemption, and rehabilitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cElected officials on both sides of the aisle, faith leaders, civil rights advocates, and law enforcement leaders agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect these core values that enable safer and stronger communities,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

In a statement posted Tuesday afternoon on Bolden\u2019s Facebook page, Bolden said he got the call about the pardon early in the morning and accepted the \u201cjustifiable action by President Joe Biden with sincere gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also thanked his family for \u201cgiving me the will to fight through some of the darkest days of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Abraham Bolden, secret service agent sentenced to six years in prison for bribery conspiracy charges, walks with his wife, Barbara, in the U.S. courthouse after the jury’s verdict on Aug. 12, 1964. Editors note: this historic print has some hand painting on it. <\/span>(Cy Wolf \/ Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhile initial attempts to affirm my innocence were unsuccessful, almost 60 years later, my victory was won,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt is my hope that my pardon will inspire others to continue to fight for justice and to stand on the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolden\u2019s story was featured in a 2010 Chicago Tribune column by Dawn Turner Trice<\/a>, including his account of how a chance run-in with Kennedy in Chicago led to him being promoted to Washington to join the president\u2019s protective team.<\/p>\n

In April 1961, Bolden was working as a Secret Service agent based in Chicago and had <\/b> been assigned to guard a cordoned-off bathroom at the McCormick Place convention center when Kennedy arrived for a political event. He said the president stopped at the restroom door and asked him, \u201cHas there ever been a Negro Secret Service agent on White House detail in Washington, D.C.?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolden said, \u201cI told him, \u2018Not to my knowledge, Mr. President.\u2019 And he asked me if I would like to be the first, and I told him, \u2018Yes, sir, Mr. President.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Two months later, Bolden, who was 26 at the time, was sent to Washington, where he said he immediately \u201cran into some harsh racism\u201d among the ranks. He said he asked to get off of the detail after enduring racial slurs from fellow agents and small nooses were left around his workplace. He also said he was shocked by the lax security around the president, including agents who womanized and drank on duty. He complained to superiors, and that is when he became a target.<\/p>\n

After Kennedy\u2019s assassination in Dallas in 1963, Bolden said he\u2019d planned to try to talk to someone on the Warren Commission, but instead he was suddenly escorted back to Chicago, where he was charged with soliciting a $50,000 bribe from the boss of a ring of counterfeiters.<\/p>\n

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Former secret service agent and author Abraham Bolden at Mather Cafe in Chicago on Jan. 13, 2010. He wrote a book in which he argued he was targeted for speaking out against racist and unprofessional behavior in the Secret Service. <\/span>(Nancy Stone \/ Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe aftermath of Kennedy\u2019s assassination led to events that would implicate me in a case of bribery,\u201d Bolden said in his statement Tuesday. \u201cAfter two high-profile trials, held before a trial judge who told the deliberating jury to find me guilty, I was convicted and served a six-year sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolden, who was released after serving about 39 months behind bars, always maintained his innocence. He twice asked President Richard Nixon for a pardon but was denied, and his appeals to a succession of presidents over the years were met by silence from the White House.<\/p>\n

Bolden, meanwhile, stayed in Chicago, working as an automotive quality control supervisor before retiring in 2001. His wife, Barbara, who is now deceased, convinced him to write his memoir, \u201cThe Echo From Dealey Plaza,\u201d and stood by him throughout his ordeal, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe held our family together during these tragic times,\u201d Bolden\u2019s statement read.<\/p>\n

Chicago Tribune\u2019s Stephanie Casanova contributed.<\/i><\/p>\n

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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