PALA/CE Events

Congratulations to CALA writing instructor Marcus Reeves on publishing his latest book! Bronze Shields: A Black Police Organization’s Fight for Equality and Justice in Newark, NJ is an oral history of an African American police organization formed in 1959 to counter the racist policies and actions Black officers faced when applying to and joining the Newark Police Department. 

Reeves, who will be teaching his popular Interviews and Profiles course in Fall 2021, is an accomplished journalist and author who has written about hip hop, Black culture and politics for over two decades. In a recent interview, he told us more about his background, Bronze Shields and its inspiration, and what he’s working on next. 

Q: Tell us about your background in writing and journalism and how you got started.

A: I started my career as a journalist as a freelance writer for the hip hop magazine The Source. This was in the early ’90s, a few months after I graduated from Rutgers. My first assignment was covering a popular dance in Newark, NJ called the Lock-it-up or the Stolen Car dance. The dance imitated stealing a car. At the time, Newark was labeled the “stolen car capital” of America. At first I was troubled by such a dance. Then I remembered when I was a teen we all used to do a dance called Uprocking, which mimicked fighting in order to deter fighting. Remembering that made me want to do the assignment. So I pitched the story to Matty C, an editor at The Source (Matty is responsible for discovering the iconic rapper Notorious BIG), and he loved it. That story was widely read and launched my career. It led to me writing for the Amsterdam News, Vibe magazine, the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Washington Post, and a host of other publications. 

That Lock-it-up story inspired me to become an author because it was cited in Black Noise, the first academic book on hip hop. Seeing my work reach academia that way put it in my mind to become an author. I then published my first book, Somebody Scream: Rap Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power in 2008.  

Q: Tell us about Bronze Shields and what inspired you to write about this specific story.

A: Bronze Shields is an oral history of an African American police organization which formed in 1959 to fight the rampant racism Blacks were met with when joining the Newark Police Department (NPD). This wasn’t surprising in the ’50s and ’60s as Newark maintained a rigidly enforced racial hierarchy, with Blacks at the bottom. A group of Black cops, led by an officer named Floyd Bostic Jr., formed a group called the Bronze Shields to push back. At first their goal, like a lot of Black police associations before them, was to combat on-the-job racism and discrimination. One of their first breakthroughs was meeting with then-new Newark mayor Hugh Addonizio in 1962, voicing their complaints, and getting the NPD to begin integrating the agency and promoting Black officers who weren’t allowed to move beyond the position of patrolman. 

Over the next sixty years, the organization was able to help change the demographics of the NPD and its leadership. The Bronze Shields also worked to provide community services to Newark’s mostly Black and Latinx residents in order to bridge the gap and build a better relationship between the police and these residents. The narrative in the book is intertwined with key moments in Newark’s history, such as white flight, the ’67 riots, the election of the city’s first Black mayor, the hiring of Newark’s first women police captain and police director, and the election of Cory Booker.

I came to this project when a former president of the Bronze Shields approached me and asked if I would write a book of the organization’s history. The organization had been trying to write this history for over a decade but never completed a manuscript. Once I decided to take on the book, I decided to do it as an oral history and let the Bronze Shields and the people they have worked with tell the story themselves. This allows readers to instantly immerse themselves in the journey and lives of these officers. I was able to draw on the ideas and reflections contained in the original manuscript and particularly the work of James Du Bose to tell the story.

Q: What do you hope readers will take away from reading Bronze Shields?

A: Along with learning about this groundbreaking organization and its impact on the history of New Jersey’s largest city, I would like to shine a light on both the battles Black police have faced–and still face–within their departments, and the work Black officers are doing to improve relations between their police department and their city’s Black citizens. At a time when America is constantly reminded of racial tensions with abusive police, I want people to see an example of police office’s working to build an alliance with its Black and Latinx community and having a real impact. I would like Bronze Shields to be an inspiration to other police officers and their departments to do the same thing.   

Q: What else are you working on right now?

A: I am currently working on another book on hip hop history that takes readers well into the 21st century and tells the story of hip hop’s move toward the center of Americana. 

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Thank you to Marcus Reeves for speaking with CALA about his latest work. Bronze Shields is available for purchase on Amazon. Marcus will be teaching Entertainment Journalism in Spring 2022, with registration opening on November 1.