The Black Shield formed in Cleveland nearly 80 years ago. Initially, Black officers came together to support and protect each other from discrimination and retaliation in the mostly White police department. In the 1970s, the association took that battle to court, fighting for a more fair system of hiring and promoting Black officers and pushing for a police force that reflected the makeup of the city.
The Black Shield has also had outspoken leaders who called out civil rights violations or police brutality. One of those leaders was Vincent Montague, who in 2020 decried racism and police brutality at protests, on panels and in the press. But Montague also had his contradictions, and a history that included shooting a Black man at a traffic stop.
Read the story of Montague’s rise and fall, told by Marshall Project reporter Wilbert L. Cooper.
Cooper’s forthcoming book, “The Black Shield,” will explore what it means to be a Black cop in America, through the lens of the history of one of the country’s oldest Black policing organizations and his family’s own history as Black police officers in Cleveland.