Then-Brig. Gen. Jerome Gary Cooper is seen with his daughter Shawn at her graduation from USMC Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Va. in 1985. Gary Cooper, who rose to the rank of major general and died in 2024, fought to create an inclusive military. (Photo courtesy of the Cooper family)
Jerome Gary Cooper, a tall, congenial Black man honored for path-setting combat service in Vietnam in 1966, told the story of his and his Mobile family’s fight against Jim Crow in the book Ten Stars, which I wrote in collaboration with him more than a decade ago. His story resonates today in ways he and I never imagined when we began the project.
The book, part oral history covering a seismic period in American life, was first published in hardback by NewSouth Books of Montgomery in 2016. Cooper, who rose to become a two-star Marine general, died in 2024 at age 87. Earlier this year, a paperback edition of Ten Stars was published by the NewSouth Books imprint of the University of Georgia Press, shortly before the start of Black History Month.
Its reissue comes at a time when many of the old racial shibboleths — the ones Cooper and his Alabama family sought to cast aside — seem to be rising anew in his beloved United States military and elsewhere in America.
A recent New York Times investigative report says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blocked the promotion of four U.S. Army officers to be one-star generals, prompting some senior military officials to question if the four — two Black people and two women — “are being singled out because of their race or gender.”
The Times report provides details of abrupt shifts in the racial makeup of top tier military posts during the past year in President Donald Trump’s attack on “diversity” — not just in military careers but a broad swath of professions long seen as enriching our national life. Much as it was when Cooper arrived at the USMC Basic School in 1958, the top military posts today are still held mostly by white men.
Cooper’s efforts to assist Black people in the military and tell the vindicating story of their successes were also in the DNA of his family. His parents and siblings would make their mark in the 1960s and 1970s across a range of professional fields, including law, politics, education and the arts. Those are among the fields that, in the past year, have also been targeted intensely by Trump for revisionist overhaul.
Gary Cooper, who also became assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force, used that post to promote the careers of women and Black Americans, as well as the story of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II fame.
Recognizing Black military achievements from past wars is not necessarily a desired goal now. News reports late last year said two displays honoring Black American troops who helped liberate Europe in World War II — despite racial segregation at home — were removed from a cemetery in the Netherlands by a U.S. agency. The U.S. ambassador, Joe Popolo, said the displays “are not intended to promote an agenda that criticizes America.”
In 2012, Cooper was among 25 Marine and Navy honorees in a Pentagon courtyard ceremony — “A Tribute To African American Leadership.” These 25 were designated as “Path Breakers,” pioneering men and women of color. In Vietnam, Cooper became the first Black Marine officer to command a rifle company in combat; later he became the first Black Marine general from infantry.
Cooper’s daughter, Shawn Cooper, a Marine captain during her military career, joined him for the celebration — a Pentagon event that seems hard to visualize today.
From Alabama Reflector Post Url: Visit
Author: Kendal Weaver