“The Stirring of the Water” 13    1948 Executive Order integrating the armed forces provided an oasis of growing inclusion at Maxwell Air Force Base, African Americans who 8 worked there returned each evening to a segregated southern city. As Montgomery’s African Americans gained access to additional com- munity services and institutions, their challenges to overt racism expand- ed. Protests following incidents of police brutality even led a few whites to question unwarranted violence by police against African Americans. When Montgomery police mercilessly beat an African American, Robert Felder, so severely that he was hospitalized for several weeks, his white employer took the unusual step of reporting the incident to the press. Police chief Ralph B. King dismissed the officers involved, but he paid a price for his diligence. Bowing to public pressure, the city commissioners forced Chief King to retire. A few years later, the police arrested Gertrude Perkins on a charge of public drunkenness. Rather than transporting her to the police station, the arresting officers took her to a remote loca- tion where they raped her. When the incident came to light, police chief Carlisle E. Johnstone vigorously pursued harsh reprimands and even the prosecution of the officers involved. Once again, the city commission did not back their police chief. The mayor accused the NAACP of fabricating the whole story, and police records were altered to protect the identities of the accused rapists. When city authorities ignored his recommenda- tions, Chief Johnstone began searching for a job in another community 9 and soon left the city. Police brutality against African Americans went even further one hot August afternoon, when an intoxicated World War II veteran named Hill- iard Brooks attempted to ride a Montgomery bus. Driver C. L. Hood would not allow him to board, but Brooks refused to back down and unleashed a string of obscenities. When the police officer M. E. Mills arrived on the scene, he pushed Brooks to the ground and fired a fatal shot when Brooks scrambled to get back up. Alabama State professor Jo Ann Robinson recalled that Brooks simply got “out of place” with the Following a protest by friends of bus driver and paid the ultimate price. Brooks, a police review board found the officer’s actions justified, an as- sessment endorsed by the mayor. While a few whites and many African Americans questioned the violence and abuse visited upon African Ameri- cans, city officials continued to sanction excessive force by police officers.