[On screen text: "Meet Denyse Bardouille"]
Narrator: The state's first black female probation officer shares her story.
[Black and white photo of Denyse Bardouille in the newspaper.]
In 1975, Gerald Ford was president.
[Photo of Gerald Ford at his desk.]
Gas was $0.53 a gallon.
[Photo of gas pump from 1975.]
Milk cost a $1.57 per gallon, and eggs were $0.66 a dozen.
[Photo of a newspaper from 1975 showing the cost of milk and eggs.]
A popular singing group Earth, Wind & Fire won their first Grammy for best R&B vocal performance for a song called Shining Star.
[Group photo of Earth, Wind & Fire and photo of their album cover.]
[Music. Images of news clippings from 1975 and the cost of common commodities compared between 1975 and what those prices would have been in 2015 dollars.]
Narrator: Saturday Night Live and Wheel of Fortune premiered on NBC.
[Photos of the cast of Saturday Night Live and the hosts of Wheel of Fortune in front of the wheel.]
1975 was also the year that Denyse Bardouille, who was then Denyse Claiborne Williams, became the first black female probation officer in Suffolk County in the Massachusetts Probation Service.
Becoming Massachusetts's first black female probation officer was no easy task. It took two years of interviews to convince court leaders that she was the right person for the job.
[Photos of Denyse Bardouille throughout her career, both alone and with court colleagues and friends.]
Ms. Bardouille recently shared what her first day on the job was like on October 15th, 1975, and her shock when she discovered that she made history as the first.
[Denyse sits on a couch in her living room. On screen text: "Denyse Bardouille, Massachusetts First Black Probation Officer"]
Denyse: I was sworn in by three judges. I remember Chmielinski, I remember Nelson and I think Elam, I'm not sure if he was at Superior at the time, but when I walked in the courtroom on the eighth floor of the Suffolk Superior Court, I walked into cameras and microphones and the news media, and I was not aware that I was going to be the first black female probation officer assigned to the court at Suffolk Superior in Boston.
And in 1975, to me, that was really, really unconscionable. It should have been earlier that we were there, but we weren't, and I became the first black female probation officer, and I was shocked, but I was looking forward to doing my job.
And I was sworn in, as I said, and I started work that day and I was assigned to go do interviews in lockup, which is on 7M in that courthouse. And there were other people available that never did those lockups. [Laughs] And I was told to go up there and first day on the job, I'm like, why am I assigned to this lockup when no one else is able to go up there? And I questioned things because that's all I was gonna, how I was gonna learn, to question whenever anyone told me something, I would question it or get other information, further information. It's just for my knowledge and for me to learn from things. I wanted to be secure in what I was doing and honest about what every, everything I did. And that's basically me - to be compassionate, caring, kind to people.
And even though I was a probation officer and somebody that's legally can ruin your life by sending you away, but I let you know I didn't send you away. You have caused this action because of the way you've acted or how you've violated.
And I learned a lot about people. I learned a lot about the department, the entire system. After 33 years of being there, I learned, I was in a lot of cases that you've heard about on the news and I won't mention names, but there's been a lot of changes in the court system. And I'm glad I was there when I was.
I loved the people that I work with, especially the clients that were on probation, because "there, but for the grace of God, go I," if anything ever happened in my life, I could be in the same position. So you have to be compassionate.
Narrator: Ms. Bardouille shared words of advice for the newest probation officers of the Massachusetts Probation Service who recently graduated from the first in-house Massachusetts Probation Officer Academy.
[Photo of the newest group of probation officers of the Massachusetts Probation Service.]
[Denyse sits on a couch in her living room. On screen text: "Denyse Bardouille, Massachusetts First Black Probation Officer"]
Denyse: The first thing I would tell them is to be honest. To be kind and compassionate to the clients that they work with, understanding that we're all human beings and "there, but for the grace of God, go I," I use that a lot because it's true. Something can happen in your life at any time and would make you as part of the system, uh, or bring you into the system in a way that you wouldn't like. And you just have to understand the, the human beings, the humanness of this job, these are human beings and they deserve respect. They deserve kindness. And they deserve you to listen to them and understand and help.
And I think if you help people and you are honest about helping and you do your job diligently, it's rewarding. I think it's very rewarding. For me, it was. That's my story.
[On screen text: "Coria Holland, Communications Director/Spokesperson, The Massachusetts Probation Service"]