Oconee County Sheriff’s Office Recognizes Black History Month by Honoring Three African American Deputies

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is celebrating the service of three African-American deputies who helped pave the way for more inclusion and diversity at the Sheriff’s Office.

Harry Benson

Harry Benson, to our knowledge, was the first African-American deputy hired at the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office. According to Mr. Benson, he worked part-time at the Sheriff’s Office before becoming a full time deputy under Sheriff Floyd Owens and continued serving under Sheriff Myron Green. After leaving the Sheriff’s Office, Harry continued a great law enforcement career by working for the Clemson Police Department, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and working court security for the U.S. Marshals Service at the Federal Courthouse on Washington Street in Greenville. Harry retired in the last decade after more than 30 years in law enforcement.

 

According to Mr. Benson, then Sheriff Owens was looking to hire African American deputies and based on the Sheriff’s encouragement and the encouragement of a teacher at Blue Ridge High School, Harry went into law enforcement.

During the time of Henry’s tenure at the Sheriff’s Office, there were about 12 to 15 deputies, so everyone did a little bit of everything. Harry says that he appreciated Sheriff Owens for the opportunity given to him, but he does not consider himself a pioneer. Harry says he considers himself a citizen of Oconee County who wanted to serve the citizens of his home county.

Harry says he enjoyed his time in law enforcement and it gave him an opportunity to travel throughout the United States and meet people he never thought he would have a chance to meet. He does not have any regrets about his chosen career and contributes his success in law enforcement by treating people the way you want to be treated, and if you do that, according to Mr. Benson, you will not have any problems.

Dennis Wilks

Dennis Wilkes began his law enforcement career after serving three years in the U.S. Army, including one year deployed to Vietnam. While stationed in Germany, Harry Benson wrote to Dennis and asked him to partner with him in law enforcement. After being discharged and working in industry for several months, Dennis became a deputy sheriff with Oconee County.

 

Dennis served for 24 years in law enforcement, working for the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and then the Clemson University Police Department, where he retired as Captain of the Uniform Division. After leaving law enforcement, Dennis continued to serve the community in variety of jobs, including jobs with the CATbus system, Head Start and Vocational Rehab.

When working during his time as a Deputy Sheriff, Dennis said that deputies did a variety of things on the job and worked rotating shifts. If deputies were investigating a homicide, for example, they would work night and day and in many cases, go home long enough to take a shower.

Dennis said that he likes to serve people, to give them joy and to make them smile.

Jerry Moss

Jerry Moss served the citizens of Oconee County for 30 years as a deputy for the Sheriff’s Office, from July of 1983 until his retirement in July of 2013. When Jerry retired, he was a Sergeant in the Criminal Investigations Division as a Property Crimes investigator. Before that, Jerry served as a Sergeant in the Uniform Patrol Division.

 

At the time that Jerry began his career in law enforcement, he was working for Southern Bell. According to Jerry, he was laid off in 1982 and with no job prospects on the horizon; he was encouraged to apply by a family member who worked at the Sheriff’s Office, the late Lieutenant Charles Reid, who was his wife’s uncle. Jerry worked odd jobs to make ends meet after being laid off in 1982 while he was hunting for a new job.

Jerry was hired by former Sheriff Earl Holcombe and he described himself as “green as green could be.” He says at the time that Sheriff Holcombe was looking for a certified officer; however, after an interview for a deputy’s position, Jerry was offered a job and was hired. Jerry says that Harry Benson and Dennis Wilkes were inspirations to him and were gentlemen who were well liked and nice guys.

When hired by the Sheriff’s Office, deputies at that time were required to purchase their own service weapons. However, Jerry could not afford to buy a gun due to being out of work and with money being tight. Sheriff Holcombe told Jerry that they were not going to let something like that keep him from becoming a deputy and Jerry was supplied his first service weapon by the Sheriff’s Office.

Jerry says that he believes in treating others with kindness even though others may not do the same to you, and he said that he made a lot of friends while working in law enforcement. Jerry also says that his wife was his biggest supporter in his law enforcement career.

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office thanks these officers for their service. The late Charles Reid is another African American that served many years at the Sheriff’s Office and retired in the mid 1990’s. He is pictured below, the first deputy on the left.