Charles LeRoy Gittens

• Charles died on July 27, 2013.

• He was in an assisted living center in Mitchellville, Maryland.

• Charles lived all the way to 82!

• When Charles was in the army he passed a GED.

• GED stands for General Education Development

• A GED is a test where a group of four people take at a time. If passed it gives the subject American or Canadian high school-level academic skills.

• The author of this book is Maurice A. Butler.

• The first time he met Charles was when his daughter said he could come and talk to his class.

• "Maurice Butler was born and raised in northwest Washinton DC He is a proud product of DC Public Schools, having graduated from Cardozo High School, and an alumnus of Bowdoin College. He served as a DC public school teacher, varsity coach, and administrator for thirty-five years most of which was at Theodore Roosevelt High School. He has been happily married to Patricia J. Butler for thirty-three years and has two sons, Steven and Cardell. His desire to write and publish resulted from his affiliation with the DC Area Writing Project, which is the local site for the National Writing Project."

• One of Charles' stories is when he was guarding President Kennedy during a trip to Hyannisport.

This is Hyannisport.

• After working in New York, Charles was moved to Puerto Rico because he was a fluent Spanish speaker.

• After the president sat down in his rocking chair he looked in Charles' direction and said "Come here, Charlie."

• He was the island's senior agent.

• While working there on of his assignments was to accompany New York's governor, Nelson Rockefeller, during his trip as presidential emissary to Latin America and the Caribbean republics.

• After Gittens responded a little dog runs over and onto the presidents lap. That dogs name was Charlie. "President Kennedy just laughed his head off." - Charles LeRoy Gittens

Kennedy and his dog

Charlie!

Charles LeRoy Gittens

• Since Charles passed the GED in the army when he got back he could go straight to college.

• He went Caroline Central University

• This is North Carolina Central University

• Opened on July 5, 1910.

• It was originally called National Religious Training School and Chautauqua when Charles went there.

• Charles early life he was born in Massachusetts on August 31, 1928.

• Him and six other siblings were first generation americans with a dad from Barbados.

• This is Barbados!

• His father was a contractor.

• There he got an Arts degree in Spanish and English.

• The first ten years in the service he worked in New York.

• He finished the four year program in three years!!

• While in New York he mostly worked as a guard.

• This is Charles LeRoy Gittens

• Other then protection he worked in investigating forged federal government cheques and bonds, and he investigated cases involving counterfeit currency.

Durham

• Charles also has a book written about him.

• It is called "Out of the Shadow".

• "This is a story a man who came from humble beginnings and ended up at the crest of power in Washinton and Moscow. The story takes us into the depths of a racially segregated South to the desperate strees of New York City where criminals and crime fighters fought for control and to an America reeling from the assassination of its political leaders. It is the dtory of the growth of America. It is the story of a man who kept scaling seemingly insurmountable walls as he fought for justice. This is the story of Charles LeRoy Gittens."

• The school is located in Durham

Charles LeRoy Gittens

• This is Charles LeRoy Gittens!

• He was a high school teacher just like Miss. Kinder! Untill 1956!

• In 1956 he became the first black secret service agent.

• Charles went and took the exam.

• The first time he took it he failed the test!

• “Can you imagine such a thing? The guy in charge had scribbled things down like, ‘speaks incoherently’ or ‘can’t be understood.’ Now a Boston accent is a pretty strange thing in Atlanta, Georgia — that much I can assure you. But that was really too much.” Mr. Gittens said.

• Most people believe racism was behind it.

• The next time he took the exam he passed with flying colors.

• Subsequently he got inducted into the secret service in 1956.

Charles' personal life:

• Charles was married twice in his life.

• The first time was with Ruth Hamme. They were married for 28 year before divorcing. He had one daughter with Ruth. Ruth died in 1991.

• He then had a second marriage with Maureen Petersen. In this marriage he had two step daughters.

• His cases during the time led him all over the country.

• One case led him to Boston and Toronto. There he went under cover. People had been making $20 bills and feeding them into Brooklyn.

• He went undercover so deep he even arranged to get arrested with some of the forgery gang members.

• The ruse was so successful that some of the guys during the trial apologized for getting him mixed up in all of this business.

• Gittens had become deputy assistant director of the Office of Inspection, overseeing all the Secret Service field offices by the time he retired in 1979

• After retiring he worked for the Department of Justice

• There he helped hunt down war criminals living in the U.S. as deputy director of the Office of Special Investigations.

• He enlisted in the U.S. army before graduating high school.

• During the Korean War he was stationed in Japan.

• He was promoted to lieutenant.

• Another story Gittens has is of him in New York.

• He was guarding John F. Kennedy at New York’s Madison Square Garden

• That is when Marilyn Monroe sang the president "Happy Birthday".

• The last place Charles worked before he retired was Washington.

• Charles was in change of 100 people. During this time he really encouraged the enlistment of black agents.

• Even though Charles had been working there for over a decade there were still only 37 black secret service agents out of 1,200 employes.

• After leaving college, Charles became a high school teacher.

• That is when one of his friends said he should take the Civil Service exam.

• At first he didn't think he should take the exam, but eventually he studied and took it.

By: Vien Schmelzenbach

Date: 2/26/16