Imagine being a black police officer in the segregated South. You have to risk life and limb while simultaneously dealing with the racism and discrimination against you.

Now, imagine doing that for 20 years and, merely because you are black, you don’t get the same pension as white retired officers.

This is the fight of some nearly 200 retired police officers in Georgia. Because of racism, these officers were denied access to a state-supported supplemental police retirement fund until 1976.

Had many of these officers been allowed to buy in earlier in their careers, they would have hundreds of dollars more a month in retirement benefits. Instead, some like J.L. Booker spend what should be their retirement years working to make ends meet. Booker says he could have had as much as $770 extra dollars per month had he been allowed to participate earlier.

Georgia is the only state that has such a pension crisis for black officers. I guess, at least when it comes to police officers, these other states’ legislatures have recognized that racially discriminating against those who served on the ranks of their police forces was wrong or, at least, sent a very bad message about their states.

The fight is not over. If the state legislatures do refuse to act, the next stop is court.

Georgia, stop being shameful. Protect those who protected you all these years.

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