The Black Shield - by Wilbert L Cooper (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Both an epic history and an intimate family story, a startling account of the lives of Black cops in one Midwestern city.

Amid the fervent protests over police killings in 2020, the reporter Wilbert L. Cooper returned to his hometown of Cleveland to profile the president of a Black police organization called the Black Shield. The group had aligned itself with activists calling for reform, but its president was notorious for having shot a young unarmed Black man years earlier. As Cooper explored the question of whether Black cops can create the kind of radical changes in policing that Black people are calling for, he was also welcomed by the members of the group in a different, more complicated capacity: as Sergeant Will Cooper's son.

For Cooper, this assignment was personal. His parents are retired Black Cleveland cops; his sister was a Cleveland cop; on his mother's side, there has been a Cleveland cop in the family since 1950. In unearthing the dramatic histories of the Black Shield and his own family, Cooper tells the intertwined stories of the two: his relatives, whose lineage traces back to the Great Migration and who chose policing because it was one of the few stepping stones to economic security and status in a segregated city; and an organization that, over decades of cultural and political upheaval, has cycled endlessly between rebellion and acquiescence.

An intimate, bold work of literary nonfiction, The Black Shield is an urgent exploration of the complex duality of the Black cop. Cooper grapples with a knot of contradictions: Is the Black officer a sign of progressive change, or of a system that shifts its appearance without changing its outcomes? How to reconcile the fact that policing helped lift his family out of poverty while it has kept its knee on the necks of his people? Fearless and singularly powerful, The Black Shield gives us an American story about race and power that has never been told before.

Review Quotes

"Evocative . . . Cooper is a vivid writer and an unsparing reporter . . . [A] beautiful excavation."
--Eli Saslow, The New York Times

"Clear, compelling, and fearless . . . Though Cooper maintains that he wrote this extraordinary and powerful book 'to solve the paradox of my parents, ' The Black Shield reaches beyond that personal goal. Cooper's review of the challenges, insults, dangers, and murders Black men and women have endured in this country over the centuries, often at the hands of the police or the government, is particularly necessary now."
--Bill Littlefield, The Arts Fuse

"A revealing, closely observed account of police culture and its discontents."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Cooper's exploration is both personal and collective. It's the story of unique individuals, and it's also the broader story of the Black American experience of law enforcement--both behind and in front of the badge . . . The Black Shield provides an essential look at the systems of oppression that continue to pervade American society."
--Virginia Reeves, BookPage (starred review)

"Black cop can seem like a contradiction in terms. Imagine how it feels for the Black cop. Raised in a police family, Wilbert L. Cooper turns to his folks and their friends and asks the hard questions. The result is an eloquent, enraging, earnest, often hilarious history of what it means to be Black and blue in Cleveland. The Black Shield should be read by everybody, from abolitionists to law-and-order liberals."
--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

"The Black Shield is an extraordinary and entirely new kind of story about race and policing in America. Wilbert L. Cooper's memoir is also an intimate, layered story of a family making moral compromises to survive."
--Rachel Aviv, author of Strangers to Ourselves

"In this poignant, searching memoir, Wilbert L. Cooper tells a compelling and contemplative story about the tangled intersection of race and power. Through remarkable reporting, Cooper reveals the sordid history of policing and how Black police officers like his parents navigated an institution often painfully hostile to their own community. And he does it with such heart, asking the tough questions--both of himself and of his family."
--Alex Kotlowitz, author of An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago

"The Black Shield is a riveting saga about the moral compromises Black Americans have made for their survival and dignity. By telling the story of one Black police organization in the Midwest--and his own family's ties to it--Wilbert L. Cooper shows us that the search for power and meaning is often as tragic as it is necessary. Cooper's phenomenal book is a warning and an ode, a forensic account of the world that saved his family and implicated them at the same time."
--Aaron Robertson, author of The Black Utopians

About the Author

Wilbert L. Cooper grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. He studied journalism at Ohio University and earned a master's degree in publishing at New York University. He has written for outlets such as The Guardian, The New York Times, the Marshall Project, and The Wall Street Journal. His Vice documentary The Cleveland Strangler was nominated for a National Magazine Award. In 2024, he was the recipient of the Richard J. Margolis Award. The Black Shield is his first book.