The State - News from Nov. 16, 1986

Voters in sparsely populated Siskiyou County at the northern edge of the state have made Charlie Byrd the first elected black sheriff in California, officials said. Sue Muncy, executive secretary for the California State Sheriffs’ Assn. said San Francisco had a black sheriff for a time in the 1970s, but he was appointed. Byrd, 39, chief of police in Weed, said his race was not a factor in his Nov. 4 contest against sheriff’s Capt. Kenneth Jourdan. Byrd received 9,277 votes, 60.3% of those cast, to Jourdan’s 6,105 votes, or 39.7%.