JANIE GOULD

Indian River County’s first black sheriff’s deputy, Dallas Yates, faced resentment from some whites and some blacks when he was hired in 1962. Six sisters in the mostly black Gifford community resented him mightily after he broke up their fight with a man who had been going out with one of them.

“Those six sisters had got on him and had him down, beating him up,” Yates said. “I drove up there and pulled the siren on them. All of them got off that man but one. She was still down on him trying to cut him. I tried to get her off him and when I did, her sisters came up there and they cut me, and then I called for help. You don’t have six pairs of handcuffs! I’d put one in the car, and the other sisters would let that one out. When backup came, there must have been 50 people out there.”

Q: “All mad at you?”

A: “They didn’t bother me, those others. Didn’t nobody bother me but those sisters. That was six of my enemies!”

Q: “Did you have quite a few?”

A: “Oh yes, and I had quite a few friends, sure did.”

There was a couple who fought regularly about the man’s paycheck. Yates went to their home four Friday nights in a row to calm them down. He said he’d take them to jail if it happened again.

“The next weekend the dispatcher called me. He called them my babies. He said your babies are crying! When are you going to put them in jail? You’ve about done wore out all the napkins you had wiping their eyes! I said let me see what’s going on – again. I talked to (the wife) and while she was talking she was calling on the Lord. (I carried my Bible with me). I said do you know anything about that man you’re calling on? She said, yes sir. I said, do you go to church? She said yeah. I said do you belong to the church? She said, uh oh, I’m going to join the church. I said, do your husband go to church? No, but he’s going to join too, he says. I said, well you go back there and get him. I said this makes the fifth time I’ve come down here for the same thing, and you all promised me that you weren’t going to do this no more! He says, I didn’t bother her. I said I see scratches on her arm. She bothered me! She jumped on me. I said I told you I was going to carry you to jail next time. Then I thought, they don’t hurt each other. It’s just that he wants to get back the money that he had given her the first part of the night.”

Q: “He ran out of money?”

A: “Yeah! Out there with the boys! I asked him did he belong to a church. He said no. I said your wife said she’s going to join. What about you? He said yes sir, I’ll join the church. I said well, you all have promised me so much. My dispatchers and the jailer, they all feel that you are my babies, and I’m petting you. I said I’m just trying to help you. I said, now are you willing to let’s have prayer? She hollered, yes sir! I started off with a song, ‘I’m on the Battlefield for my Lord,’ and she really prayed. He prayed, and when he prayed, the spirit told me I just wasn’t going to have to carry him to jail. After that, I prayed with all our hands on the Bible. When I checked in with dispatch, they said, where’s your 10-15?”

Q: “Prisoners?”

A: “Yeah. I said we had a prayer meeting and I left them. They laughed and they bet me that I was going to have to go back. That was on Saturday morning. On Sunday, they called me and told me they had gone to church. I checked with the pastor and he said they had. I never had no more trouble with them, not any.”

This interview was first heard on Janie Gould’s Floridays radio show on WQCS/88.9 FM. Floridays: Tales from Under the Sun,” illustrated collections of the shows, are available for purchase. Contact Gould at Janiegould@aol.com for more information.