On This Date (December 25) 1896-Special Officer William McDuff
On December 25, 1896 Dallas lost it’s first African American Police Officer. There is very little information regarding William McDuff as to family and place of burial.
William McDuff, age 50 in one report, age 63 in another, was appointed by Dallas Chief of Police J.C. Arnold as a Special Officer and commissioned as such.
His assigned duties, apparently without pay, was to patrol the mainly African American neighborhood known as Stringtown, now the area surrounding the Woodall Rodgers Freeway/North Central Expressway interchange.
Prior to his death, he had warned two suspects that were attending the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the neighborhood for creating a disturbance during services.
On Christmas evening, the two suspects, Homer Stone and Jim Barclay, no ages given, came to Officer McDuff’s home located at Boll Street and Juliett Street (changed to Munger Avenue in 1911) and began yelling obscenities and make threats.
Officer McDuff departed his home, approached the two suspects in an attempt to stop their threats and immediately was shot in the head. One reports says a pistol was used, another says a shotgun was the murder weapon.
Officer McDuff fell to the ground and died a few minutes later.
The two suspects were identified and taken into custody. Upon trial they were convicted of the murder of Officer McDuff and sentenced to twenty five years in prison. A review of the conviction reduced the sentences to ten and fifteen years, but the report did not designate which suspect received which sentence. Apparently from vague reports, they did however serve their entire sentences.
Officer McDuff was a native of Navarro County near Corsicana and it is believed he was returned there for burial, but the exact location is unknown.
There are no known photographs of Officer McDuff.