Georgia's first black police officers may take pension battle to court - CNN.com: ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A 'whites only' sign was still hanging on the precinct house water fountain in 1964 when James Booker joined the suburban College Park police force.
He soon learned it wasn't the only thing off limits to Georgia's new black recruits.
Until 1976, black officers were blocked from joining a state-supported supplemental police retirement fund.
Today, white officers who entered the fund before that year are taking home hundreds of dollars more every month in retirement benefits than their black counterparts.
The now-retired black officers have been lobbying hard to change that, but eight years after they began an effort to amend the state constitution and give them credit for those lost years is stalled in the Legislature.
The Georgia Constitution prohibits the state from extending new benefits to public employees after they have retired.
