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One of first two black Gainesville Police officers remembered for paving way to future
Sgt. Earnest Eugene Earls Sr. dies at 82
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Royce Stephens, left, and Earnest Earls are sworn in as officers in the Gainesville Police Department by City Clerk Bill Pratt in 1963. Stephens and Earls were the first two black officers in the department.
When Frank Hooper was just a 6-year-old hanging around the Gainesville Police Department, he always remembered seeing Earnest Eugene Earls Sr., a well-respected officer working with Hooper’s father. Years later, Hooper would look around at the police academy to find Earls once more, now as a Hall County Sheriff’s Office deputy. Sgt. Earls, one of the first two black Gainesville Police officers in 1963, died on Saturday.