Frank Holloman. The M Files, DIG Memphis.
Frank C. Holloman was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi and grew up in nearby Ruleville. After graduating from Ruleville High School in 1932, Holloman attended the University of Mississippi, where he earned a law degree in 1937. Later that year he joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Special Agent, and he served with this organization for the next twenty-five years.
During his service with the FBI, Holloman acted as Special Agent in Charge at the Atlanta, Cincinnati, Jackson, Mississippi, and Memphis offices and conducted security inspections of South American war production plants. Perhaps most importantly, he was the inspector in charge of Director J. Edgar Hoover’s Washington office from 1949 to 1959. After retiring from the FBI in 1964, Holloman was named Director of Development for Memphis State University and then Executive Director of the Mid-South Medical Center Council.
In 1968, Holloman was appointed the first Fire and Police Director of Memphis in the new city council form of government. His immediate goals as director were to increase police numbers by 150 per year, to bolster the police presence on the street, and to develop a cooperative relationship between the police and all citizens of Memphis. However, the start of the Memphis Sanitation Strike in February 1968 would serve to highlight the racial divide within the city and significantly strain the relationship between police and the black community.
During the strike, Holloman oversaw the expansion of the police’s internal security division to monitor strikers and their supporters and the creation of an emergency services phone system to supplement the existing system during civil disorder. His early tenure was also faced with charges of police brutality and disrespect levied by strikers and their supporters. These accusations only further strained a police force already under pressure policing a city with growing unrest. While the city maintained support from many citizens through much of the strike as evidenced by citizen petitions and newspaper editorials, late March and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. saw a swift change in public sentiment regarding the city’s response to the strike.
Leaving the Memphis Police Department in October of 1970, Holloman became Coordinator of Security for the University of Missouri. He remained there in a full-time capacity until 1972 and served as part-time coordinator until 1978. Holloman returned to Memphis in 1972 to become Executive Director of Future Memphis, Inc., a position he held until his retirement in 1980.
Beifuss, Joan Turner. At The River I Stand. 2nd ed. Memphis: St. Luke’s Press, 1990.
Duerksen, Menno. “Police Director Plans ‘Show of Force.’” Press-Scimitar, January 11, 1968.
The following can be found in The Frank Holloman Collection. History Department, Memphis Public Libraries, Memphis, TN:
Captain’s Cruisers, February 14, 1968. Series 3, Box 5, “Civil Disorders – Sanitation Strke – 1968 (5)” Folder.
Citizen Petition, undated. Series 3, Box 2, “Brutality Petitions 1968 Memphis Fire and Police Division” Folder.
Days Off, February 14, 1968. Series 3, Box 5, “Civil Disorders – Sanitation Strke – 1968 (5)” Folder.
Emergency Telephone Communications, February 16, 1968. Series 3, Box 5, “Civil Disorders – Sanitation Strike – Emergency Phone Communications – 1968” Folder.
Labor Trouble at Public Works Dept., February 10, 1968. Series 3, Box 5, “Civil Disorders – Sanitation Strke – 1968 (4)” Folder.
Letter from Frank Holloman to Barnes Carr, March 29, 1968. Series 3, Box 7, “Correspondence – Press Scimitar – 1968 (2)” Folder.
Letter from Frank Holloman to Charles Schneider, March 18, 1968. Series 3, Box 7, “Correspondence – Press Scimitar – 1968 (2)” Folder.
Letter from Frank Holloman to Frank Ahlgren, February 12, 1968. Series 3, Box 7, “Correspondence – Commercial Appeal – 1968” Folder.
Letter from Frank Holloman to Frank Ahlgren, March 18, 1968. Series 3, Box 7, “Correspondence – Commercial Appeal – 1968” Folder.
Letter from Frank Holloman to Guy Northrop, March 7, 1968. Series 3, Box 7, “Correspondence – Commercial Appeal – 1968” Folder.
Letter from Maxine Smith to Frank Holloman, March 7, 1986. Series 3, Box 2, “Civil Disorders – Sanitation Strke – 1968 (2)” Folder.
Meeting of Martin L. King, and Three Members of the Invaders, March 30, 1968. Series 3, Box 5, “Civil Disorders – Sanitation Strke – 1968 (1)” Folder.
Memorandum to all Personnel, undated. Series 3, Box 5, “Civil Disorders – Sanitation Strke – 1968 (2)” Folder.
Press Conference Clayborn Temple, April 2, 1968. Series 3, Box 2, “Civil Disorders – Sanitation Strke – 1968 (1)” Folder.
Sanitation Strike Overtime, March 18, 1968. Series 3, Box 5, “Civil Disorders – Sanitation Strke – 1968 (5)” Folder.
Strike Information, February 12, 1968. Series 3, Box 5, “Civil Disorders – Sanitation Strke – 1968 (4)” Folder.