A pioneer in national security who guarded not only the family members of former President Gerald Ford but also former President Jimmy Carter has died at
It took the Secret Service nearly a century to hire its first Black special agent, Charles L. Gittens, in 1956. Another 15 years would pass before the organization brought on its first female agents, and still a few more years went by before Zandra I. Flemister became the first Black woman in that role in 1974.