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Growing up in Detroit, Ike McKinnon remembers a group of police officers

known as the Big Four. They patrolled his neighborhood.

Usually four very large white officers.

One day in 1957, when Ike was leaving school,

these four officers grabbed me, threw me up against the car,

and proceeded to brutally beat me. And then at some point told me to get my ass out of there,

and I ran home.

The beating he got that day wasn't exactly a shock.

Because I had seen these officers beat up so many people in my neighborhood.

But it did shock him into a decision about what he would do with his life.

So I made a decision that evening I was going to become a police officer.

Ike McKinnon didn't just become a police officer. He became the chief of police in his hometown

of Detroit, and the deputy mayor. Even now, retired at the age of 77, he remembers his first

night on the job as a young cop. And the supervisors of Sergeant Lieutenant came into the room,

and they announced roll call. McKinnon heard his name called, and then the name of his patrol partner

for the night, a white officer. And this officer said, Jesus, effing Christ, I'm working with

the, and he said the racial derogatory term. They asked me, well, welcome to the police department, yes.

...