Black History Month: After years of struggle, Marvin Guest led Evansville Police Department

Editor's note: The Courier & Press and The Gleaner are marking Black History Month with a collection of stories about people, places and events from local Black history.

EVANSVILLE — After notching a string of firsts at the Evansville Police Department over the course of decades, Marvin Guest Sr. became the city’s first Black chief of police in 1998, an achievement he described as his “impossible dream.”

Evansville’s Black community and local civil rights groups rallied to Guest’s support during his rise through the ranks of the department – a rise that included a successful federal lawsuit alleging discrimination within the EPD.

Upon Guest’s appointment to the top spot in August 1998, Guest’s sister, Novely Thomas, was quoted in the Evansville Press as having said, “Our dad always gloated on his son. I just wish our parents could be here to see this.”

Then-Mayor Frank McDonald Jr. tapped Guest, then 59 years old, to replace Art Gann as chief. At the time, Guest had served with the EPD for 34 years in various commanding roles. But his rise in the ranks was marred by significant challenges.

Guest joined the department in 1963 after his mother saw an advertisement in the newspaper and encouraged him to apply to become an officer. A colleague at the EPD, Charlie Patton, described the culture Guest and other Black officers faced in the sixties as prejudiced on all sides.

“We caught hell at both places: on the street and in headquarters,” Patton told the Evansville Press upon Guest’s appointment as chief in 1998. “There was racial stuff written on certain parts of the roll call room. You’d see the ‘magic word’ written on the wall from time to time.”

In 1963, the EPD remained segregated. Black officers rode and worked together primarily in the inner city.

Leslie Sanders, one of Guest’s colleagues and mentors with his own storied department career, recalled Guest asking him why Sanders worked so hard.

“Every move I make is going to affect the Blacks that come behind me,” Sanders recalled saying in reply, according to an Evansville Press account. “I wanted to be a good example.”

The ensuing years would see Guest chart a rise through the ranks. In 1969, he made detective corporal, and in 1972, Guest secured a promotion to sergeant. A further promotion to lieutenant became the subject of litigation in 1976 when Guest sued the city, alleging he’d been passed over for the promotion due to racial discrimination.

A federal judge agreed with Guest’s assessment. Four years later, in 1980, Guest sued the city a second time after the then-lieutenant was demoted to sergeant. He secured a reinstatement of his rank in 1981 and went on to secure subsequent promotions to captain and inspector before becoming chief in 1998.

Guest’s tenure as chief came to an end in August 2001 when Mayor Russ Lloyd Jr. appointed David Gulledge to replace Guest, who had anticipated that a new mayor could choose to appoint their own man. Guest claimed to have received a letter from Lloyd Jr.’s office saying as much not long after Lloyd Jr. won his election.

But the mechanics of how that changing of the guard played out stunned Guest at the time, and he outspokenly said so.

“Every chief that has occupied this office knows at some time their term comes to an end,” Guest was quoted as saying in the Aug. 24, 2001 edition of the Courier & Press. “I had that expectation a year and eight months ago. But I thought maybe, just maybe, the citizens and this individual (Lloyd) would find it important enough to remove the police from politics.”

And politics was nothing new for Guest by this point. From enduring segregation within the department to lawsuits and battles with the Police Merrit Commission, Guest had taken his share of punches. When Lloyd Jr. decided to force Guest from his post, local newspaper reporters illustrated how tactfully Guest played the tough hand he was dealt.

“No tears need be shed for the 37-year police veteran,” Paul McAuliffe wrote in an August 2001 edition of the Courier & Press. “If Guest has proved one thing, it is that he will survive and thrive in spite of adversity.”

Guest left a lasting impact on the EPD, one which came full circle in January when Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry, the first Black woman to lead the city, appointed Phil Smith to become the EPD’s second Black chief of police.

Smith alluded to Guest’s time as Evansville’s police chief during a January news conference. In response to a question, Smith made sure to note he followed in Guest's footsteps.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Black History Month: Evansville's first Black chief of police