First black US Secret Service special agent dies

MITCHELLVILLE, Md.,-- Charles L. Gittens, the first African-American agent in the U.S. Secret Service, has died from a heart attack, officials said.

Gittens, who went on to provide security to American presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy, was 82, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

"He was a great agent," said Mark Sullivan, director of the Secret Service. "When you talk to people who worked with him, the one thing I hear is that he was just a regular guy … a lot of agents, black and white, have benefited from the things he has done. He led by example, and he set the standards for all of us to follow."

Gittens died July 27 at an assisted living center in Mitchellville, Md., following a heart attack.

Charles Leroy Gittens was born Aug. 31, 1928, in Cambridge, Mass. He quit high school to join the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of lieutenant. He obtained a GED while in the military; he later earned a college diploma and became a teacher.

Friends encouraged him to seek work in federal law enforcement and he joined the Secret Service in 1956. He was appointed special agent in charge of the Washington field office in 1971.

Charles Gittens, who was 82, was sworn in as a special agent in February 1956 and retired in 1979 after a career that saw him battle counterfeiters and protect US presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson.

"Mr Gittens' legacy of accomplishments will live on with all of those who knew him, as well as all of us who benefitted from the path he created and the standards he set as the first African-American agent in the Secret Service," said US Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan.

"His contributions to this agency and this country cannot be overstated," Sullivan said in a statement.

Prior to Gittens' 23-year career in the Secret Service -- which also has a uniformed branch and protects the grounds of the White House and a second mission of preventing currency and bond fraud -- he served in the US Army in Japan and at the sprawling Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina.