The Black Lives Matter movement was monumental in calling out police brutality in our nation. It brought to light countless gruesome stories of victims and officers who dodged accountability.
But the police force has had a long history of brutality against the Black community, even Black police officers.
To fight back against the discrimination they faced, Cleveland police officers began the Shield Club, an organization representing Black officers. For decades, the group tried to bring reforms to the police system. Sometimes the efforts were fruitful, but many times, a lost cause.
How did Black police officers reconcile working for the same system that they felt put their own community at risk? And can you really fix a system from within?
Journalist Wilbert L. Cooper uncovers the story of being a Black cop in America in his recent book The Black Shield.
He shares the stories of his own family members, who were almost all police officers, and shares the history of one of the country’s oldest Black policing organizations.
Guest:
- Wilbert L. Cooper, journalist, The Marshall Project/author, The Black Shield
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides with Amy Juravich. For decades, Black police officers thought if they increased their representation in the police force, they could help stop the brutality against Black Americans and better serve their communities. But the fight for representation was no easy feat. Cleveland police officers began the Shield Club, an organization representing Black officers. The group tirelessly tried to bring reforms to the police system, sometimes fruitful. Many times a lost cause. Journalist Wilbert L. Cooper uncovers the story of being a Black cop in America in his recent book, The Black Shield. He shares the stories of his own family members who were almost all police officers and shares the history of one of the country's oldest Black policing organizations. And he joins us today. Welcome to All Sides Will.
Wilbert L. Cooper: Thank you so much for having me.
Juravich: And congratulations, yeah, nice to meet you. Congratulations on the book.
Cooper: Thank you so much. It's incredible. It's been about six years in the making, so it feels really wonderful to finally have it out in the world and to talk with someone from Ohio about it is really cool to me.
Juravich: Well, we're happy to oblige. You are from a family of police officers, but you became a journalist. Why did you decide to buck the family trend? Why did your pursue journalism?
Cooper: Yeah, you know, I think in many ways for my family, the profession of policing was done so that the next generation wouldn't have to take a career like that. So I think my parents were always focused on pushing me towards getting an education and getting a job that requires a degree, being able to use my mind in a different way than police officers often do. So I really think it was a generational thing with my family where this was a... A profession or a career that could get them into the middle class and that maybe the next generation would find other professions or other things to do.
Juravich: So what inspired you to write this book? Was it that your family was full of police officers or did something else spark you when you were like, there's a book here?
Cooper: Oh, absolutely. I mean, a big part of it is the fact that I come from a family of police officers, but also I came of age during the Black Lives Matter movement, during all of these sort of conversations around race and policing. And when there were these sort of high-profile incidents of police shootings, it caused me to really reflect on my connection with policing as being both a Black person, but also coming from a family of police officers and having really benefited such a great deal from policing.
Juravich: So you said that you've been working on this for six years. So that takes us back to 2020, probably George Floyd, Black Lives Matter movement. Was the idea a book from the beginning or was it more like an article or something like that? Cause you were a journalist and you were like, I'm gonna write about this. Was it articles first and a book later?
Cooper: Yeah, you know, it started off as an article. I was going to Cleveland really interested in the Black Shield organization in Cleveland because the leader at the time was marching and going out with activists and being in support of Black Lives Matter activists and even talking about being somewhat in support of the Defund the Police idea. And I thought that was a really interesting thing to think about. You know, how Black police officers exist within policing, especially at that moment. And when I came to Cleveland to report on it for the Marshall Project, because I was my hometown, there were so many connections I had to the Black Shield that sort of revealed to me as I started to engage with it. And even the leader who I was following, this man named Vincent Montague, he's someone who had known my father. And I also sort of realized through my reporting that my great uncle had been. A part of the Black Shield organization in the 1960s and 70s. And so there started to be these really integrated threads between my own life and the story I was reporting. And I think from there, right away, I started to see that this was an opportunity to talk about a lot of different important issues and things.
Juravich: So the book is called The Black Shield, and it's about the Shield Club. That's the original name of the organization that started nearly 80 years ago, and it was an effort to protect Black police officers, kind of unite them together. The Shield Club is what it was called. You uncovered so much history in your book. How did you do go about your research? Because I have to think that there's no real textbook on policing in Cleveland from 70 years ago.
Cooper: No, but one of the things that was great was that the Black Shield were really generous at the time in sort of opening up their archives. They had kept a lot of historical stuff that went back to the 1960s that I was able to engage with. And also, the Black Shield, when it was called the Shield Club, had a lawsuit with the city that caused affirmative action hiring quotas. And that lawsuit had a great deal of information, and I was able to connect with legal aid in Cleveland who had archives and things like that. So I was really able to get intimate, granular information about what it was like to be a police officer because that lawsuit was all about the experiences of Black cops and why the city of Cleveland had racist hiring practices in a racist workplace. So there were tons of transcripts of officers who'd been working in the 40s and the 50s talking about their experiences and what it was like. So it was a deep dive into that and then also a deep dove into my family.
Juravich: Yeah, and well, speaking of the deep dive into your family for the book, you track down a lot of people. You interviewed humans, as a good journalist does. Many of them were family friends, but some of them are harder to reach. I mean, tell us about that process of finding the people you needed to be able to complete your story.
Cooper: Yeah, it was definitely a challenging thing because you're sort of trying to tell a story about my family, but then also about the city of Cleveland and then also the whole country. So trying to pick out who to speak to was a challenge. And then also, when it comes to the historical side of the book, there's a lot of people that aren't here anymore. And there would be even situations when I was reporting where I might connect with a source and then maybe they pass. Not long after I talked to them because, you know, they're in their 80s or they're 90s. One of the biggest benefits I had was my Uncle Curtis. He's in his 90s and he's still alive and still has his mind. And he was a great connector for me in terms of talking to some of the older Black officers who are in and around Cleveland. And also he was very open and unguarded in how he talked about his own perspectives. Of policing and his experience in policing. And that was immensely fruitful dialog I had with him that I think gives the book a lot of character and helped make it not just a historical thing, but also a very colorful and narrative thing because of the insights he offered.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking with journalist Wilbert L. Cooper about his recent book, The Black Shield. It's a memoir about Black cops in America. So your book challenges a lot. It questions whether Black police officers can really fix the system from within. Was it difficult to ask a family member or a close family friend about a loaded topic like that? Like, you know, could you really do this?
Cooper: You know, it's interesting because every person that I talked to had different intentions or different focuses on why they became a police officer. Some of the family members and officers I spoke to did not have a sort of change the system or, you know, fix the system sort of perspective. Some of them were, you, know, thinking about just getting a job and making money and having stability and protection and safety in America, and other people were thinking about those things. So. It was really interesting to kind of think of, talk with people about their different intentions. But I think the conversation around the ability for policing to, for Black police officers to change the system really brought up a lot of emotional things for the people I spoke with because in some ways, even they, even those that tried to fight or do some of the more progressive things were discouraged. Because of the setbacks and the pushbacks and even some of the successes they had in reforms didn't end up causing the result that they hoped for.
Juravich: Was it difficult sometimes to talk to people? I mean, I can imagine that some people went through traumatic experiences, whether it was being as a police officer or just being Black in a job like that. We're seeing some people reluctant to speak about the past, they just wanted to leave the past in the past and not talk to you.
Cooper: Yeah, I mean, this book is filled with stories of violence. There's a lot of pain in this book. So much of that is experienced by my relatives, by Black community members in Cleveland, by Black people across the country at the hands of police or as a result of racist institutions and systems. And then also, there's a lot of stories of violence that is perpetuated by policing. And Black police officers are a part of that violence. So there was definitely a lot pain and trauma. And it was interesting to see how different people dealt with it. Some people are very open about it, but not emotionally connected to it. So they can reveal and talk about the things that they've gone through, or the things that they're seen, or the thing that they done. And they do it in a sort of flippant way. Other people are very emotional and sensitive about it and don't, like you say, wanna revisit it and go back to it at all. So it was a great spectrum, but I think the book does a good job of showing that spectrum by having so many different voices and picking up on lots of different narratives and types of experiences within that.
Juravich: In the beginning of the book, you talk about the experience of being a journalist but also being the son of Sergeant Cooper. So what was that experience like whenever people realized that you wanted to talk to them about the Black Shield, not because you were interested in becoming a police officer like your father. You were questioning their legitimacy. You were asking questions about like what they were doing in this group.
Cooper: You know, with the Black police officers, I feel like they are people, in my experience of doing this reporting, who want their stories told. I think that it's a community that is guarded about the media, but once it's sort of revealed that I had a bit of an understanding or a connection to their story and their history, I think a lot of people were very willing to share because I think a lot of them understand and know that they have this kind of unique perspective, like few people understand policing and race better than Black police officers because they're sort of on the cutting edge of both of those things in American life. So I think there was a bit of witnessing or testimony, you know, like I get to unburden myself with this knowledge and this information that I've been carrying. And hopefully somebody can... Shepherd it and share it in a way that does it justice.
Juravich: So maybe they trusted you a little more, too, because you have so many family members in the system, right? I don't know if any old journalist coming up to them they would have talked to, do you think?
Cooper: Absolutely. And I mean, some of these people, you know, knew me from when I was a child. I mean that's that's one of the bits in the story. I sort of talk about my my first experience going to the Black Shield, which, you know, obviously it's this organization. It has headquarters on the east side of Cleveland. And headquarters is is part where they do their business and, you know, work on their advocacy inside the department on behalf of Black officers. But it's also where they socialize. They have a bar. They hang out. They have celebrations. And so my first time going there, I mean, many people recognize me, like you said, as my dad's son and these people have seen me grow up. So I definitely think there was a level of like, we see you, we understand you, we know where you're coming from and we'll speak to you in a way that we wouldn't speak to other people.
Juravich: Talk to me about learning the history of understanding police brutality toward the Black community. Like talk to me about learning that history. Did it make you understand more about the police versus the Black community dynamic that we have still existing today by learning about how it existed years ago?
Cooper: Yes, the history is such an important part for me in this book because I think it helps reveal a lot of the core elements of policing in this country. You know, we're at a time when police take on a lot different duties. They do a lot things, but there are these core things that connect policing today with policing in the past. And particularly when you talk about about the history of slavery in this country. And the role that sort of early police-like institutions played in, you know, protecting the human property of slave owners. You know, I think that connects directly to what we're seeing happening in America today. And there's also a militarization aspect of policing as well too, that connects correctly with that history. So kind of engaging with that past gave me a way of understanding and thinking about the present. And it also complicates the role of the Black police officer. When you start to talk about early policing institutions and slavery, and then you connect that to the present and you talk about Black people being inside of policing, all these sort of dissonances begin to raise up. And those are the kinds of issues and realms that I wanted to explore in this book.
Juravich: Yeah, I think what you're talking about there too goes along with a headline. There's a New York Times review of your book that came out yesterday. I didn't get a chance to read it beyond the headline, but it calls your book evocative. And then the headline says a son of Black cops asked what it means to be both a target and an enforcer. And I know you're a journalist, so you know, like people don't have control over headline writers, but. But I thought when I read that headline, I was like, oh, yeah, what do you think of that? The target and enforcer, kind of those two words.
Cooper: Yeah, I think it really captures a big spirit of the book. I mean, that is kind of the question. I think about my father, for instance, he's someone who was drawn to policing because policing had this great power. And in his community, he saw that power being used aggressively, and he didn't wanna be a victim of it. And so that's why he aligned himself with the power of policing, because he didn't want to. Fall prey to it in the same way that many of his peers did. And the book tries to explore how much you can really control that power. So because Black people are often the object of policing or the over-police community, when we become police officers, how much protection and safety does it get us? And then on the other side, how much does it cost our community to align with that system and that power.
Juravich: We're talking with journalist Wilbert L. Cooper about his new book, The Black Shield. It's a memoir about Black cops in America. And coming up, Will is staying with us. We're gonna learn more about his family experience of being Black police officers. That's when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides, I'm your host Amy Juravich. For the black community especially, the idea of the police can invoke fear and panic. This stems from more than a century of police brutality and discrimination. Despite the police force diversifying and black police officers climbing up in the ranks, the brutality remains. For journalist Wilbert L. Cooper, this reality hits close to home. He comes from a family of black police officer who all face countless battles. Trying to fix the system from within. We're talking this hour about his book, The Black Shield, a story about black police officers in America and the history of one of the country's oldest black policing organizations in Cleveland. Thanks again for being here today, Will.
Cooper: Thank you so much for having me.
Juravich: This could have just been a history book, but you decided to make it part memoir as well, including many anecdotes and stories. So why was it important to you to include stories and anecdotes from your life basically in the book?
Cooper: Yeah, you know, that's really my style. I come from originally having worked at Vice Magazine, which very much was in the tradition of like new journalism, kind of gonzo journalism. I spent many years there. And then I started working at The Marshall Project, which is focused on criminal justice and does a lot of investigative journalism. And so with this book, I tried to blend the styles and kind of come up with my own. Eclectic mix that I feel is like literary, journalistic, historical and personal. But I wanted to convey to the readers how urgent this issue is of policing by having these stories about myself and my family in there, because this stuff is real, you know? All this information, these racial issues, these policing issues, all this stuff is, is, is. Real stuff. It's not it's not analytical for me and it's not something that I look at down from an ivory tower. These are my family. This is my country. Cleveland is a city I was raised in and so it had to be personal.
Juravich: Your great uncle Lloyd was the first in your family to enter the police force. Despite being a sergeant in the military and taking the civil service exams, it wasn't until a while later that he got the job. So tell us about his experience and how the civil-service test worked at the time for someone who's Black.
Cooper: Yeah, I mean, you know, the civil service tests are pretty interesting because in some ways they were adopted by city governments to try to make hiring more equitable because before civil service tests you had patronage systems which is basically like a politician. You elect a politician, a community elects a politician and then they get so many spots on the police department. But the Black community was able to utilize patronage in some ways to get officers on police departments through voting. With the civil service tests, people are pretty familiar with this. You take a test to qualify to be eligible to join a job. For my uncle Lloyd, he passed the test with the intention of being a firefighter, actually. But because the fire department in Cleveland did not want to sleep in the same house of a Black man. Um, he was then encouraged to move over to the police department. And so that's sort of how he ended up, um, on the police department, but the, the civil service tests specifically, um. In some ways they can be a great force for diversifying or equalizing the playing field, but in other ways, as you see later on, you know, they can be twisted and used also to keep people out.
Juravich: The Shield Club, which is the original name of the Black Shield, began after Black Patrolman Lynn Coleman was wounded in the Euclid Beach Park riot. He's referenced many times throughout the book. Tell me about the impact of that person, Lynn Coleman.
Cooper: I think Lynn Coleman is a fascinating, fascinating figure, and I really got, I got introduced to him through a book by W. Marvin Delaney, but I was able to really understand him through the archives of transcripts I found at the legal aid during his testimony on behalf of the Black Shield. But Lynn Coleman, is a guy who began in the police department in the 40s sort of a a true believer, a lot of the ways that he policed were typical, almost related to today where instead of it being more focused on drugs, as cops might be focused on today, it was like alcohol and things of that nature and really coming down hard on his community. But eventually, you know, he sort of had a shift and a change. One of the big things was he got so familiar with the law. That he started to really go after places that did not follow the laws that outlawed segregation in Ohio. So Ohio, particularly Cleveland, had kind of de facto segregation. And there was a situation when Coleman, it was in Columbus, actually, where he was trying to go to a burger stand, and they wouldn't allow him to eat there, but he knew that the law forbade segregation. And so he called the police, and it became a big. You know, Ohio news story. So he's this really interesting figure, but as he sort of gets more self-esteem and more connected to the civil rights movement, he really tries to use his position on the police force to make a change and make a difference. And the testimony that I was referring to, I think is particularly important because it may be one of the most significant contributions. That he had. He testified in the 1970s for this lawsuit. And that testimony is what I used to build a lot of my information in the book around. And it really chronicles the racism that he experienced in the police department and the racism that the police department helped sustain and support during Jim Crow in the city of Cleveland.
Juravich: Another name I wanted to highlight is Fred Johnson, one of the presidents of the Shield Club, spearheaded many of the lawsuits against the police force. And he was one of people you were not able to talk to, but he's crucial to the history. So tell me more about how you learned things about him and about his relationship with the, that he had with Black officers.
Cooper: Yeah, Fred Johnson is super interesting. So he comes into the shield club in the 60s and 70s. This is during the time of the civil rights era. And he's one of these people who really identifies with the Black power movement and the civil rights movement and takes their core values and really tries to act or bring those into policing. And that's sort of his guiding light. And in some ways... He kind of stands alone. So this lawsuit I keep referring to, he was sort of the engine that got it filed. And basically, it was a very notable lawsuit because it really made it clear that Cleveland had racist hiring practices. And it draw a connection between the racist hiring practice and the racism experienced by Cleveland police officers and the way that the city of Cleveland policed. So, when Fred Johnson did his testimony alongside Lynne Coleman... He talked a lot about murder cases and missing persons cases and things like that that happened in the Black community that were not investigated at all, particularly due to the fact that the victims were Black. And on the other side, he talked about how the communities were over policed for minor things. And this is a situation that unfortunately is still a problem today. Like we still hear these same conversations, but he was very committed to it. And he sort of fought hard to try. To change some of those core issues.
Juravich: Yeah, so he's basically saying there's police everywhere all the time, but when we need them to solve an actual murder, then they're nowhere to be found.
Cooper: Absolutely. And that gets back to what I was saying earlier about some of the core intentions of policing, even though policing has kind of taken on all kinds of different activities and things that it's engaged in and does in our society. Fred Johnson was seeing that core intention playing out in his community where the Black people were not being served, but they were being criminalized and they were incarcerated and brutalized at a really atrocious rate.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking with journalist Wilbert L. Cooper about his book, The Black Shield. It's a memoir about Black cops in America. Another name, Jean Clayton, was the secretary of the Black Shield Club with Johnson, and like whenever Fred Johnson was the president, Jean Clayt was the Secretary. She fought many gender discrimination cases, and she became your mother's inspiration for becoming an officer. So tell me about some of the barriers that. Jean Clayton had to try to break down.
Cooper: Yeah, Jean Clayton is an incredible woman in the broad history, I think, of policing, not just in Cleveland, but just in general. Women in policing before Jean Claytons era were more social worker oriented, and a lot of them came from, they were like white women from the upper class. Jean Claytan sort of represents the more working class women who comes into policing. And in the city of Cleveland, prior to the 70s, there was a segregated women's bureau. And this bureau was focused on dealing with cases that involved women and kids and trying to divert them and do more social work-oriented kind of policing. The problem with the women's Bureau, though, was that if you worked in it, because it was segregated, there were no promotional opportunities. And there was lower pay. And it was just a much worse situation to work in than if you worked in the broader police department. And so she filed a lawsuit, a gender discrimination lawsuit that ended up causing the end of the Women's Bureau and for the complete police department to be no longer gender segregated. So she's a really pivotal figure for that reason. And because of her... When my mom became a police officer, my mom was part of one of the first class of women who were able to work in any part of the police department. The trick, or the flip side to it, is that a lot of the diversion-oriented things, a lot the more sensitive things that the Women's Bureau did for victims of sex crimes and things like that, and for kids, a lot those good services were lost when the Women's Bureau was. Decommissioned and the department was integrated with the Jeniers.
Juravich: Well, and despite the work that Jean Clayton did, your mother, Gail Smith, she did suffer a lot of gender discrimination along with racism, probably for being in the first class of police officers who were working alongside men if all the women were in a different, basically in a difference room. Why do you think she kept going despite enduring so much? I mean, she was enduring, it's not just the racism, but then being it's a woman, so you're the whole double minority thing. Why did your mom keep going?
Cooper: My mom has experienced a great deal of struggles in her life. At the time that she was in the police department, she was married to a man who was abusing her. And so a big part of the reason that drew her into wanting to do and become a police officer was to get economic stability. And she had known Jean Clayton, who you mentioned earlier, all her life and saw her as like a strong, powerful woman who had. A great deal of independence. You know, Jean Clayton was the type of lady who wore pants and walked proudly and didn't take any stuff from anybody. And so I think the combination of her need for economic stability and also her need for a semblance of power and also, her need to wanna try to help people who were experiencing some of the same things that she had experienced in her life, there would drove her to become a police officer and there would. Kept her there and made her fight to stay in that position.
Juravich: I know it isn't always easy to talk about, but your parents themselves, they were involved in cases as officers. They had to do things that challenged their ethics. You talk about your mom having to patrol a KKK rally. Your father was involved in a shooting that involved another Black man. But you argue in the book that just because you're a Black officer doesn't mean you aren't tied down or influenced by a culture that already exists there, the police culture. So tell me more about that. Tell me about talking to your parents about their ethics being challenged and being a Black officer with the Black community.
Cooper: Yeah, I mean, this was a really important aspect of the book for me because this is sort of where the personal and political kind of come together. I think I really wanted to get to know and understand my family more as their son. And I think this profession by its very nature is a kind of isolating, alienating profession. Particularly when you talk about the things you just brought up, the work that kind of challenges maybe your community's ideals. And so reporting and working on this, I was trying to get closer and get a better understanding of the totality of my parents, not to judge them, but also so that I can understand myself better and think about my own choices as an adult. Working in an institution like the media and how I can comport myself And how do I? You know, try and fail and then try again to live up to my own ethics and ideals. So it was a very personal journey for me and it really brought together this external issue of policing as institution and just my family.
Juravich: You talk a lot about how your parents kept you away from the work they did when you were a kid. Did you have to pry information out of them if they basically didn't want you to know certain things or they didn't talk to you about it when you're younger, but you're like, I'm a grown-up now, come talk to me. Talk to me about getting your parents to open up to you.
Cooper: You know, I think the biggest thing was the journalism, you know, having that as a kind of mask, as a kinda connector. I don't know, I don't even have like a good adjective for it, but it just, maybe the best adjective would be, it created a container for the conversation, you know? So it wasn't this amorphous kind of unknown thing. There was a purpose and a reason and a space for us to have these talks. Because of this book and because of the work I was doing, that made them open up tremendously. I mean, the things that are in this book are the result of them sharing. And I think it's on both parts because I wanted to know them and they wanted me to know that. You know what I'm saying? They wanted me understand. They wanted to get closer. And so it really, this book is really a meeting of the minds and a meeting of generations. Black family generations coming together and trying to find connection and understanding.
Juravich: It wasn't like you were basically going after your parents unannounced at Thanksgiving dinner being like, tell me the story right now, right? So you took it more or less as a son and more as a journalist, you probably set up a meeting. We're going to talk on this day and this time and I'm going to take notes and this is how it's going to go. So is that why they were able to open up? Because it was like business man will?
Cooper: Yeah, I think, you know, it's, it began with that. And then I think then it started to be outpouring. You know, where they just they couldn't stop sharing, you know, became a flood. One of the most powerful things that we had was I remember I went to the Black Shield one day and I had the Black Shield let me take some archival material to check out and I brought it home and my family were looking at it. Having memories come out and talking about the things and one of them were just some photographs that I was going to get scanned that were of Black Shield dinner dances and some of these pictures included my parents but they included their friends and you know they allowed me to just sit and listen to them reminisce and talk about this whole universe this whole world that they have been a part of that was totally alien to me as their son so.
Juravich: Yeah. When you were little, did you know that they were going to dinner dances? And like, did they talk about the Black shield and you were just like, Oh yeah. Yeah. Like, did you even know what it was?
Cooper: I knew what it was because there would be little things for kids. So even in the Black Shield archive of stuff that they have, there's even a photograph of me at one of the pool parties. So I vaguely knew and was familiar with it and around the house I would see stickers and stuff from it. But the dinner dances I always knew because they would get really dressed up. You know what I mean? My mom is like real into... Fashion, you know, so she would rock some furs, she'd rock, you know, some jewels, she get her hair done. And my dad is more of like a rock and roll guy. But for that, he would get dressed up to. And so so I definitely have those memories and that kind of awareness that this was something that they did. But it was kind of like, that's what grown folks did. This is a grown folks thing. This isn't really a thing that concerns me. And So fast forward to, you in those spaces and being around those people who knew my parents in that way, it was very illuminating and it offered something different for me as their son.
Juravich: We're talking with journalist Wilbert L. Cooper about his new book, The Black Shield. It's a memoir about Black cops in America. And coming up, we'll hear more about the history of the Black Shield, and then we'll talk about the more recent movement, the Black Lives Matter movement. That's when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News. You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. For over a century, the Black community has tried to bring representation to the police force. But despite their efforts, police brutality against the Black Community remained. Nearly 80 years ago, the Shield Club, later known as the Black Shield, formed in Cleveland, an organization that supported and protected Black police officers from discrimination. Journalist and descendant of police officers, Wilbert L. Cooper, sought to find out whether... Cops could really invoke the change in their community that their community was calling for. And he wrote a book titled The Black Shield, sharing the Black officer's experiences through his family's stories and the history of the Black Shield. And he's still with us today. Thanks again for joining us, Will.
Cooper: It's such a pleasure to be here.
Juravich: So we talked about how your mother became a police officer because she was escaping an abusive relationship and she wanted to help others in that way. What about your father? What drove him to become a police office?
Cooper: My father is a really, really interesting person and trying to get to understand and know him is one of the core engines of the book. But for my dad, I think he often describes it as kind of being a mercenary. In the 70s, looking around at his community and seeing the way his community was policed, looking at his peers and seeing them either get arrested. Or get killed. Really felt like he wanted to align himself with some kind of power that would insulate him from the fate that a lot of his peers and people around him were falling into. And that's why he chose policing. I don't think his political ideas or his cultural ideas map perfectly onto it. Instead, I think it was much more of a kind of cynical. Choice and decision. And that's one of the things that I really try to explore and impact in the book, is whether or not the way he sees it actually makes sense to me. So yeah.
Juravich: Throughout the book, you talk about how, when you looked back, you know, about 80 years ago at the reforms that the shield club were calling for, they're very similar to the reforms we're still calling for today. Why do you think we are still fighting for so many of these same changes, you know decades later?
Cooper: Well, yes, I think it is very connected to what we were talking about earlier, the kind of original aspects of policing in this country. And also just the base way that this country was created and formulated. Policing is an institution that in a lot of ways upholds and maintains a lot of these issues that have been with us since the birth of this country. And it's really hard to change or impact that without broader systemic and social change.
Juravich: Towards the end of the book, you reference the Black Lives Matter movement several times. How do you think the movement changed the landscape of policing, like the way the police are viewed today within the Black community? What was the Black lives matter's impact on that view?
Cooper: I think the Black Lives Matter movement was important in bringing back a lot of the conversations and concerns that had previously happened. I can't say that it's totally new because one of the very illuminating factors of working on this book was engaging with the Black newspapers from the 40s, from the 50s, and seeing. As we talked about the exact same kinds of conversation, the exact, same kinds of protests, the exact same kinds of use controversial use of force. And so people have been angry about policing in this country for such a long time. It just didn't.
Juravich: It just didn't have the name Black Lives Matter and it didn't the social media video component, right?
Cooper: Exactly. And but I think that that's also one of the things that I think is in some ways inspiring about my book. Like on one hand, it can be sad to say, well, we've been fighting this fight for so long, and we've be trying and failing to get to the promised land. But on the other hand, I think I get great inspiration from learning and hearing about the people what people were doing in the 50s, what people were doing in the 60s. What people are doing today, trying to use their power to change policing. And the book does a job of showing those people doing it inside the department and what it costs them. And also people outside the police department, these activists and these advocates who put their lives on the line in many ways for the betterment of their community.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking with journalist Wilbert L. Cooper about his book, The Black Shield, a memoir about Black cops in America. You mentioned him earlier, a major player in the Black Lives movement in Cleveland was Vince Montague, a Black police officer who stood alongside Black Lives Matter protesters, called for more police accountability, but he himself is a controversial history as an officer. Tell us a little bit more about his story and listeners. I mean, this is something you've written about a lot, right? And he wrote a big piece for the Marshall project about it, but, you know, we're just, what does his story, like how is his story just, just basically like, it shows the complicated role Black officers play in the fight for police reform.
Cooper: Yeah, he's a fascinating person because he, like you said, he was involved in a shooting and then later he became a sort of advocate and ally to the Black Lives Matter movement. And then later on in his profession, as I follow his story, he gets kind of pushed out of policing in Cleveland. And so there are these questions that remain about whether his... Being fired in the city of Cleveland is related to his was related to its activism and its advocacy on behalf of the Black community So Vincent represents all the different aspects of the things we're talking about He's the ally and advocate. He's a martyr He's also the like I think the word used earlier like enforcer, you know And and that it speaks to what I was trying to do with this book This book is a big complex weave of different narratives and stories of individuals that do different things at different points in their lives and make like hard choices that are shaped by the institutions and the structure of society. And Vincent is one of those people. And I just felt like his story could say a lot. For everyone.
Juravich: In the book, you also talk about an initiative that was started in Cleveland called the Peace Officers, but it's safe to say you were not a fan. Tell us why this initiative fails to solve problems. Talk to me about this.
Cooper: Yeah, I think what you're referencing is like a workshop that I attended where there's this initiative of trying to rebrand policing as peace officers. And I think a big part about it speaks to this conversation of the institution of policing and how resilient it is. And so, I think for me... When I was in that workshop and kind of hearing about how they could rebrand policing without changing underlining issues. I think that was a light bulb moment for me. It was a really important moment because I'm like, wow, I'm sitting and hearing like almost like a historical moment, like something that we may talk about later because the book really tries to showcase to readers how despite these changes, despite these fights, policing continues to do what it has done, you know? And that moment that you referenced was just one of those moments where I was in the room hearing it play out and happen in real time.
Juravich: The more things change, the more they stay the same. Is that, yeah, yeah. So after writing this book, I mean, did you find all the answers to all the questions you had? I mean is there a book to, is there book to? Yeah, like, yeah did you have a lot of unanswered questions?
Cooper: Yeah, I mean, I have so, so many unanswered questions. And, you know, I think there's, there's a lot of books that are out there that, you can break down and tell you what we should do next, how we should do it. This book was to tell you, to tell you more about who we are, you who is the Black police officer. That was the focus of this book, and I think it can be. I think it's essential reading for people who want to figure out that way forward, what the next step is going to be. Also the history, I think, is a really important thing because it connects us to our past. I'm connected to my ancestors, and I'm also connected to previous Clevelanders and Americans who've all been a part of this struggle. And that's something that I want readers to recognize is that while the problems of policing are. Ongoing and sort of intransigent, so is the struggle for freedom and liberation. And we have a choice, and that's what I try to showcase in the book, we have choice about which side we're gonna try to align ourselves with. And we might not always succeed, but I wanna illuminate those possibilities for readers.
Juravich: And your book focuses on Cleveland, obviously, because that's what we've been talking about here. But did you do any research into other cities? Do other cities have the Black Shield or the Shield Club or anything like that?
Cooper: Absolutely. There's Black policing organizations that have existed all over the country, and they're often very similar in the trajectory of the Black shield in that they have oscillated between acquiescence and resistance. So as these sort of high moments of civil rights era or Rodney King or. You know, Black Lives Matter, as these sort of high moments happen, these organizations can sometimes sort of be forced by the community to take on, in kind of an interesting and positive way, like community can push them to take on more radical or progressive ideals. And then at other times, some of these organizations can be more aligned with the institution as it exists and be mostly concerned with how do they advance the concerns of their. Members around employment, around promotion. But the Black Shield, I think, is interesting because for the historians who have focused on it, besides myself, it has been unique in the opposition that it faced, especially in its initial incarnation in the 1940s.
Juravich: We have been talking with journalist Wilbert L. Cooper about his new book, The Black Shield. It's a memoir about Black cops in America and in Cleveland. I wanna thank you so much for your time today, Will.
Cooper: Thank you so much, it was such a pleasure. I really appreciate getting the opportunity to chop it up.
Juravich: Yes. And if you missed any part of today's show, listen back at our website, wosu.org slash all sides. Subscribe to our podcast. Every episode is available in our mobile app. This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. I'm Amy Juravich. Thanks for joining us today.