In-Store: Wilbert L. Cooper: The Black Shield w/ Ugonna Okpalaoka

Event guidelines:

• Each ticket will include either a copy of the featured book or a $10 Books Are Magic gift card.
• Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.
• A signing will follow the talk.
• Home address is collected for contact tracing purposes; it will not be used otherwise.
• The event will also be livestreamed for free here: https://youtube.com/live/b6jVPBMQ2pA
• As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out.

If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact [email protected].

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

In the wake of the George Floyd protests, a Black police organization in Cleveland called the Black Shield was causing a stir. Officers broke ranks with their fellow cops, aligning themselves with local Black Lives Matter activists. Wilbert L. Cooper returned to his hometown to write a profile of the organization's president, who had become notorious years earlier for shooting an unarmed Black man.

For Cooper, the news was deeply personal. Both of his parents and his sister are retired Black Cleveland cops, and on his mother's side, there’s been a Cleveland cop in the family since 1950. Unearthing the dramatic histories of the Black Shield and his own family, Cooper tells the intertwined stories of the two: his relatives, 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 upheaval, cycled 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 the system’s masterful way of changing its appearance without changing its outcomes? How can he reconcile the fact that law enforcement helped lift his family out of poverty when he lives in an era that is marred by mass incarceration and perpetual police violence? Cooper gives us an American story about race and power of a kind that has never been told before.

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.

Ugonna Okpalaoka is an Emmy Award-winning producer, filmmaker, and creative strategist whose work brings underexplored narratives and communities into focus. Across journalism, documentary filmmaking, and live events, Ugonna has built a career challenging the perspectives we choose to center, who we choose to shape them, and how those choices influence the way we understand ourselves and the world around us. Previously, Ugonna was a producer at the TODAY Show for nearly a decade where their work earned multiple awards, before leaving to help launch NBC News’ brand and experiential marketing team. Ugonna also made their directorial debut with Gloves Off at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. Since then, they have produced culture and impact-driven work for clients like Cole Haan, Carol’s Daughter, and the Human Rights Funders Network. Today, Ugonna runs Outside Voices, a creative studio that develops content and events bringing people together around ideas that matter.