Earlier this year, before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, Bill Collick stopped by the Cape Gazette office with Kathleen Baker of the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice. They were excited about a program coming to Lewes Public Library in April featuring a book by Mathew W. Horace and co-author Ron Harris.
A longtime football coach, administrator and now Cape Henlopen school board member, Collick had coached Horace at Delaware State University before Horace graduated and pursued a degree in law enforcement.
The book Horace wrote, published in 2018, is called “The Black and the Blue.” A subtitle on the cover captures its essence: “A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement.” It arises out of Horace’s decades of law enforcement experiences, at all levels, as a black cop, and more than 100 interviews with police officers all across America.
The book’s 250 pages are engaging, blunt, raw and illuminating. They offer a unique and excellent read for anyone interested in a close-up look at the current state of law enforcement during these unsettled times and how we’ve reached this point. It includes several first-person interviews with police officers and the often life-threatening situations in which they found themselves. It also details several incidents where racism played an outsized role in the shooting deaths of black people by police officers.
Horace also discussed police reform efforts across the land that give him hope.
Given the events of this past summer, the program scheduled for Lewes Public Library would have been particularly prescient and valuable had the pandemic not forced its cancellation.
Collick said there are still discussions about getting Horace to the area for a program. “He was a leader at Delaware State when he played there, and none of us was surprised at his success,” said Collick. “He was a change agent and still is.”
“The Black and the Blue” is available through Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach.
‘Five Days’
More recently, Mike DiPaolo of the Delaware Community Foundation dropped off a book just published in 2020, titled “Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City.” Author Wes Moore, with journalist Erica Greene, chronicles five days of demonstrations, protests, riots and destruction in Baltimore in April 2015 following the death of Freddie Gray after his arrest by Baltimore City Police officers.
An award-winning journalist and author, Moore offers insight into the urban culture and poverty-stricken conditions that shaped Gray’s short and tragic life. One of the most striking revelations to me was the physical effects on Gray’s brain and subsequent behavior from lead poisoning caused by formative years lived in deteriorating apartments with many layers of lead paint. Gray’s autopsy revealed levels of lead in his bloodstream over five times the level considered dangerous.
Moore’s book presents diverse perspectives and insights into the events leading up to and just after Gray's funeral through the eyes of police officers, a young white public defender, a young black woman who conducted a year-long protest of her brother’s death at the hands of police officers, and a member of the family that owns the Baltimore Orioles and the choices he had to make as a new season was beginning in the midst of the riots.
Just as with Horace’s “The Black and the Blue,” Moore’s “Five Days” opens windows into societal scenarios to which most of us – without reading these well-documented books – would otherwise have no access. As such, they give us broader and deeper context and perspective into the current cultural quakes and storms shaking our society.
Delaware Community Foundation, as part of its annual Building Opportunity initiatives, will host a virtual keynote address by Moore Thursday, Nov. 19. His book is available through bookstores and online. “Five Days” is also available through Delaware’s public libraries.
Go to Delaware Community Foundation's website, delcf.org, for information about how to register for the Nov. 19 event.
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Dennis Forney has been a journalist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972 and has been writing his Barefootin’ column for The Whale and then the Cape Gazette for more than 30 years. He blogs at www.capegazette.com/blogs/dennisforney. Contact Dennis at dennisforney@capegazette.com.
