Atlanta Area Expected To Elect Black Woman Sheriff

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. - Jackie Barrett has made a career of debunking the notion of Southern sheriffs as potbellied, cigar-smoking, redneck white men in leisure suits.

Now she's poised to become a living antithesis of that image.

If, as expected, she defeats the Republican nominee in the Nov. 3 general election for Fulton County sheriff, she'll be the nation's first black woman sheriff, and one of only about a dozen female sheriffs in the nation.

"It's one more of those infamous glass ceilings that has been broken," said Barrett, who won the Democratic nomination in an Aug. 11 primary runoff. "I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it happened in the South."

Few doubt Barrett's ability to run the department, which includes Atlanta in its jurisdiction.

"She's very well qualified," said James "Bud" Cody of the Georgia Sheriff's Association. "She even wrote the curriculum for the sheriffs-elect academy back when we started it in 1980."

Barrett, who holds a master's degree in sociology, developed the six-week course for new sheriffs during her 10-year tenure as a researcher and trainer for the state agency that licenses officers.

Next she computerized the Fulton County sheriff's department during two years as its chief administrative officer. Since 1987, she has directed the Fulton County Public Safety Training Center.

If she wins, Barrett, 41, will take over a department with a $29 million budget and a staff of 760.

The sheriff's department operates the chronically overcrowded jail and provides courtroom security, serves warrants and other court papers, and supports the county and city police forces.

The last elected sheriff, Richard Lankford, was convicted in 1990 of extortion and tax evasion charges. Although the conviction was overturned, he did not to run for re-election.

Barrett said she challenged interim Sheriff Robert McMichael "because the deputies asked me to. They wanted someone who could step in and really give them leadership at a time when leadership was desperately needed."

Initially, she was skeptical of her chances, not because of her race - Lankford and McMichael are black - but because of her sex.

But she tells skeptics "this is a job that requires management skills, leadership skills and administrative abilities, and those characteristics are not gender based."