Top Cop in Tallulah

Police Chief Zelma Wyche of sultry, deep-Delta Tallulah, La., looks and acts the archetypal Southern cop. There is the ample belly hanging over the gun belt as the massive, 6-ft. 2-in. figure swaggers down the sidewalk. There is the natty uniform with gold stars on a white starched shirt, a button open at the neck. And there is the amiable cockiness, the touch of braggadocio, the blunt cigar and the smile revealing two gold-crowned teeth. Only one anomaly destroys the stereotype: Chief Wyche is black.

Wyche took office as Tallulah's police chief last June 26, the only black to head the police department of any sizable biracial town (pop. 10,000) in the South. A down-at-the-heels mill and farming center near the Mississippi River, Tallulah has a reputation for brutality toward blacks; Wyche himself once saw a black man standing beside him gunned down by a white policeman --for little reason.

First Names. Wyche's election victory hardly demonstrated a new spirit of racial tolerance. There were fears of violence among both races. Segregationist sentiment remains strong, and Wyche was overwhelmingly opposed by whites. Black voters outnumber whites 3 to 2, however, and with balloting running almost completely along racial lines, Wyche won.

If Tallulah seems an unpromising town for a black police chief, Zelma Wyche, 52, at first glance seems even more unpromising as an agent of amelioration. A Tallulah resident most of his life, he has been the town's most active and noisy agitator for racial justice. His attitudes have hardly altered in office. His mannerisms grate on white nerves. He hails white people by their first names, criticizes without a qualm Tallulah's white civic leadership and unabashedly seeks personal publicity.

Wyche was considered "uppity" by town whites years ago, when that was a dangerous label. He was trying to get blacks registered to vote as far back as the late 1940s. Even before that, he says, he was openly flouting segregation, drinking out of whites-only water fountains, refusing to let whites be served ahead of him in stores. Somehow, he was never assaulted, though he says that several whites have "put a gun on me." He boasts today: "They cursed me and threatened me, but they never attacked me. Maybe my size scared 'em off." Wyche has been in court and in jail several times on charges stemming from civil rights activity. One case against him is still pending.

Good Job. Tallulah and Wyche make a volatile mixture, but surprisingly, there has been no explosion. Whites have accepted their new police chief with sullen oaution. From some whites, he is even beginning to win a grudging respect. Despite his flamboyance, Wyche has moved discreetly. He has equalized his force at six blacks and six whites, besides himself, and intends to maintain a balance. Integrated pairs usually man patrol cars. "Now blacks and whites make arrests together, so there's no favoritism," he says, puffing on one of his ever-present Roi-Tan cigars. Wyche and his black cops have not hesitated to arrest whites, and there has been no trouble so far. Several weeks ago, Wyche calmly rode out a potentially disruptive anti-integration demonstration by white students. He ordered his men not to interfere, and the protest remained peaceful.

The new black chief also has won acceptance by the whites on his force. One white policeman quit when Wyche took over; the others stayed. In private, Wyche calls all his men by their first names; they call him "chief." A few white officers were harassed initially by other whites for staying on the force, but that has subsided.

Wyche says he is concerned less with the black vs. white situation than with relations between the police and community as a whole. "I want people to have confidence in the police force, to feel we're their friends, not enemies," he says. "That problem is not just with the black people. Whites have been abused by police, too."

A combat veteran of World War II, Wyche is married to a schoolteacher, and they have two grown children. He was a barber for 40 years, starting his career at the age of ten. But for years he wanted to be a cop; he is an avid Perry Mason fan. He plans to run for reelection, and blacks are filing for other local offices, including mayor. Whites are nervous at the prospect of black domination, but Wyche claims that he wants only a fair chance for blacks. Says he: "We got to prove to white people we can do a whole lot of things they been saying we can't do."

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