Leroy Stover, Birmingham’s first Black police officer, has died.

Stover, 90, joined the Birmingham Police Department on March 30, 1966. He rose through the ranks to become a deputy chief before retiring in 1998 with 32 years of service.

Stover died Thursday.

“Today, our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of former Deputy Chief Leroy Stover,’’ according to a statement released by the department.

“As the first Black officer to integrate the Birmingham force, his legacy and work at the Birmingham Police Department paved a way for others to follow in his footsteps.”

“We offer our full condolences to the family and know that he will forever be in our hearts and mind.”

In 2021, while reflecting on his career, the Birmingham Police Department quoted Stover as saying, “You live right, you treat people right, right will follow you.”

Stover was 33 years old when he became a police officer.

The Dallas County native was the valedictorian of graduating class at Shiloh High School in Selma in 1952. He joined the U.S. Army and became a paratrooper first with the 82nd Airborne, and then in the last year of the Korean War in 1952-53 was with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team.

After leaving the military, Stover worked as a truck driver for a Birmingham construction company and then joined the police force.

Stover told the Birmingham Post-Herald that there was a hostile reaction to him on his first day on the streets as an officer.

“I was taken through the basement of City Hall by armed security officers because there was a crowd of people outside,” Stover told the newspaper when he retired. “When I came into roll call, there was probably about 70 white officers in the room and some of them verbalized the ‘N’ word. They all moved to the other side of the room. I had one side of the room all to myself.”

Former Birmingham Police Chief Johnnie Johnson became the city’s second Black officer when he was hired a day after Stover.

Both continued to rise through the ranks. When Johnson became chief, he named Stover deputy chief in 1992.

In 2013, Stover’s oldest niece – Bessie Stover Powell – published a book about Stover called “Leroy Stover, Birmingham, Alabama’s First Black Policeman: An Inspirational Story”

“This book describes a journey of rejection, racism, and segregation that leads to acceptance, unity, respect and inspiration,’’ according to Amazon. “Leroy’s faith, courage, stamina, hard work and military, in his early years, helped to sustain him during his career for 32 years at the Birmingham Police Department.”

When Birmingham’s new West Precinct opened in March 2015, the building was dedicated in honor of Stover.

It was at the West Precinct that Stover was promoted to sergeant, then lieutenant and then captain.

“At the time, Blacks didn’t check out the reading material to study for the exam,’’ he said. “The white officers in the West Precinct would check them out in their name, I would study them, and they would turn them back in.”

Stover was stunned the building was dedicated to him.

“Unbelievable. I’m speechless,’’ Stover told AL.com at that time. “Most times when a building is dedicated, the person it’s named after is already deceased. I got my flowers while I can still see them and smell them.”

Funeral arrangements have not yet been finalized.