Policing Greene: A Policeman at the Sunset of the Jim Crow South

EPISODE 5 - So, what kind of cop was Carlton Lewis?

EPISODE 5 - In this closing episode, Tom Lewis and Hal McAlister sit down together to talk about how the book and this podcast came to be. Tom’s request to his father that they record a long conversation about the Chief’s policing career just weeks before Carlton’s death is a lesson to us all about preserving family history before it’s too late. Hal asks Tom about how his mother reacted to her husband telling them at the dinner table that he wanted to quit his job and become a deputy sheriff with half the income they had been accustomed to. Her response was surprising. Early in the first podcast, Tom’s dad says that “to be a good policeman you have to love people.” And yet, Carlton was a fearless fighter who relished a good brawl. Those two things seem to be contradictory. Tom and Hal talk about what led him to find that balance? While Carlton’s mentor, Sheriff L. L. Wyatt, killed nine men all of whom fired at him first, Chief Lewis never killed anyone, even when it entirely justified. How does all this relate to an assessment of Carlton Lewis as a law man? [Accompanying image: Carlton Lewis late in his career.]

EPISODE 4 - It's midnight. Let's go shut down a juke joint

Enforcing the law to a T, Carlton, accompanied by his African-American partner Johnny Grimes, goes into an all-black juke joint to shut it down for violating curfew laws. Fights ensue, and they take several men off to jail to sober up. The next morning, Carlton recommends that the judge let them all go as they were just blowing off steam after a long week of hard work and can’t “feed their families” sitting in jail. The conclusion to the shooting death of Officer Rowry is described. Deputy Sherif Lewis arrests the famous civil rights leader Hosea Williams for driving drunk through Greene County. That action has positive repercussions for the arrestee and for civil unrest in the county going forward. Ironically, after Carlton’s passing, Tom is given the job by his boss, Governor Joe Frank Harris, of protecting Williams and other civil rights leaders during a highly tense 1987 march into Forsyth County, one of the largest such protests ever in the U.S. [Accompanying image: Tom and Eleanor in the late 1970s.]

EPISODE 3 - Chief Lewis befriends the Gambler

Carlton personally takes on providing security for Kenny Rogers during the filming of a movie in Greene County and quickly gets bored with the job. Tom is jailed for speeding in Union Point, and deputies Grimes and Lewis stakeout a moonshine still. The Chief snatches a shotgun pointed at him from the hands of a deranged man who is then sent off to the huge and notorious Central State Hospital in Milledgeville. Carlton’s grandson rides along with him in his police car when the Chief pulls a car over and puts the drunk driver in the back seat to the dismay of Tom’s wife. Two of Carlton’s four-man Union Point police force are shot and one man, Officer Tommy Rowry, dies. [Accompanying image: Tom and Carlton Lewis with Georgia Governor Joe Frank Harris.]

EPISODE 2 - Shooting at the Chief

Here you’ll learn the outcome of Reuben Flynt’s murder and hear Chief Lewis talk about being shot at from close range by a normally trustworthy town employee. The Chief takes an ill-advised short-cut over the top of a parked train rather than walk around it. Tom and Andrew take a trip to Union Point to talk with Mayor Lanier Rhodes and his Jill and visit with Carey Williams, long-time publisher of the Greensboro Herald Journal, all of whom well remember Carlton Lewis. The question is also posed as to whether Carlton Lewis might be another “Bull” Connor in the making. When Sheriff L. L. Wyatt retired, many urged Carlton to run for that office. His letter to the Herald Journal touchingly explained why he would not take that plunge. But that didn’t keep him from influencing politics when he felt it necessary. [Accompanying image: The Union Point Police Department ca.1980.]

EPISODE 1 - Murder in Union Point

This first episode explores Carlton’s life from his Navy service in World War II through to his retirement. You’ll meet Johnny Grimes who worked with Carlton as a rookie deputy and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Georgia State Patrol. You will hear part one of the murder of Reuben Flynt, a bank vice president beloved by the community. Next up is the encounter with Willie the mental patient who, as described by Johnny Grimes, answered Carlton’s request that he open his front door by knocking the door out of its frame and bringing it down on top of Carlton. Then there was the time when Chief Lewis, to his son’s astonishment, flagged down a car with Connecticut plates and grilled them on what they were doing in Union Point. And wait until you hear the story of someone the Chief calls “the Streaker.” {Accompanying image: Greene County Sheriff L. L. Wyatt with deputies Reese Smith and Carlton Lewis with a confiscated still displayed outside the old Greene County jail.}