Editor’s note: This article has been changed from its original version to clarify Darren Roberson’s previous job, to correct the spelling of a name and to add a third Black department head.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Darren Roberson is a Kansas native but when he married his wife, Stephanie Roberson of Tifton, 33 years ago, he and his budding family ended up in Moultrie. 

When Roberson moved to Moultrie he worked as the purchasing director of the IBM dealership downtown, and he would provide technical support around the area. At that time, Roberson said things around Moultrie “weren’t easy.”

“I remember a time when the meter cop was coming around and checking tires,” Roberson said in an interview Friday. “She asked if I worked here. I told her ‘yes.’ She said she was astounded because that had never happened here. ‘What had never happened here?’ I asked her. ‘You having a desk up in the front office.”

Since then, Roberson has been pushing boundaries not only racially, but technically for Colquitt County. After doing some continued work with the county, he was offered the role of an information technology specialist in February of 1993. 

“When I first started, they didn’t have an IT department. I was in with the maintenance crew,” Roberson said. 

Roberson worked under Terry McMullen, who was the maintenance supervisor at the time.

“I remember I asked Terry, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He replied, ‘What is it you do?’” Roberson laughed. 

It was quickly discovered that Roberson’s expertise didn’t quite fit with the maintenance department. By June of ’93, he was named the department head of the addressing and information systems department, which he said makes him the county government’s first Black department head. 

He said that his first six years as the department head were some of the “most difficult to adjust to.”

“I came from a corporate background, so I wasn’t ready for the office politics. When you do anything in government, there’s always politics involved… There are things that weren’t done out in the open,” he said.

Since being named department head he has seen only three other Black department heads come and go. Both Lawrence Wise and Al Daniels occupied the Building and Grounds department head positions. Mose Kinsey served as the county’s magistrate judge, which is both a county department head and an elected official.

“I don’t think it was entirely on purpose,” he said. “Things just worked on the good ol’ boy system. You know if a position becomes open, there’s somebody who has a good ol’ boy who can take the place. They might not be the most qualified but they have the connection.”

While office politics did initially jar Roberson, he is proud of some of the work he’s done. Which include one of the county’s biggest operations at that point, a 9-1-1 dispatch center. 

“One of my first things I was in charge of was they wanted to get a 9-1-1 dispatch center here. I was in charge of addressing, which was just huge.”

Addressing is a process Roberson, his secretary and eventually another technician undertook in which they notarized what addresses corresponded to which emergency service departments so dispatchers would be able to quickly find the correct department to dispatch to the correct address. 

“Eventually my office got moved to the 9-1-1 center,” he said. “… Me and the first technician I got to hire were hand-building the computers for the center. We were running all over the county back then. We’d do our addressing, get a call on our radio for a maintenance call, drive back to wherever that was then go back to the addressing when that was done. In between all that like I said, we were building those computers by hand.”

While Roberson still does work on the 9-1-1 center, this year has his focus on county and state elections. The Colquitt County Board of Commissioners will see four of its members up for election: Barbara Jelks of District One, Marc DeMott of District Three, Paul Nagy of District Five and Chairman Denver Braswell of District Seven will look to Roberson to provide technical support for the voting machines. 

“It’s an election year this year. My department is in charge of the election equipment and everything around that,” he said.

Roberson and his team do “just about everything” when it comes to election time. His team is in charge of training poll workers, delivering the machines to polling locations, and providing maintenance and digital security for voters’ information.

He is also working towards upgrading the internet access for all Colquitt County systems but wasn’t able to provide much detail as those decisions are left to the commissioners. 

As far as the office politics go Roberson says that things have “certainly gotten better.” 

“We have a great county administration. Chas Cannon is a great person. He’s a fact-based person. I respect that. I think he respects me. At least I hope he does,” Roberson joked. “Things aren’t done behind closed doors like they used to. Things are done in the open and in the case of Cannon and the board, if things aren’t decided in an open meeting, they are tabled and discussed later.”

As far as getting people of color into more department head roles, Roberson just hopes that “the right person always has an opportunity and is given a fair chance.” 

“I’m not the kind of guy who says that each position needs to be filled by a person of an ethnic persuasion,” he said. “What we need are people who are willing to listen to everyone. The right person should always have an opportunity and be given a fair chance.”

Moving forward, Roberson hopes a few things are changed that could help give more opportunities to a broader array of people including removing the requirement to disclose race on a job application and expanded racial education to include more Black individuals and their experience. 

“Those who don’t study the past are doomed to repeat it,” Roberson said simply. “I just want to see the right person get the opportunity they deserve. That’s how it should work.”