Without ever saying a word, my dad taught me to celebrate every writing-related win.
You finished your rough draft? Celebrate!
You finished the second draft? Celebrate!
Your book sold? Celebrate!
Your book just got published? Celebrate!
So, yes, I celebrated when Open Road Media decided to publish my self-published book, Busting the Brass Ceiling: How a Heroic Female Cop Changed the Face of Policing. And I celebrated the e-book’s pub date on September 19th. And two days ago, on November 5th, I celebrated the paperback’s pub date. I just wish my co-author, Fanchon Blake, who the book is about, was still alive to celebrate with me.
Fanchon Blake was quite a woman. When she joined the LAPD in 1948, walking a beat in heels, a skirt, and a girdle, she was sure her talent and dedication would be rewarded. She had already made a mark in the Army, so why not?
She didn’t factor in the police department’s increasingly discriminatory agenda that made promoting impossible for all but a handful of women on the force. Challenging the policies from within did nothing. A media campaign didn’t move the needle either. Instead, then-Chief Ed Davis decided to eliminate women entirely from active duty. “You don’t know it, Chief,” Fanchon Blake told herself, “but war has just been declared between us.”
Fanchon Blake knew something about fighting. I still love the story she told my brother, who was filming her at the time, and me about taking care of an unwanted suitor with “touchy, touchy hands.” Let’s just say she hit him where it counts. “And down he went,” she recalled at age 90. “And when he was down there, I whispered in his ear, ‘Next time, listen to me.'” Her subsequent laugh was even more explosive than mine.
There wasn’t much to laugh about for years after Fanchon Blake filed a legal complaint against the LAPD in 1973, thereby initiating what would become one of the country’s landmark discrimination cases. She would be made to pay for violating the LAPD’s codes of silence and loyalty. But today, almost 45 years after the Supreme Court upheld the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in her favor, 18 percent of the LAPD’s sworn officers, who used to be almost exclusively male and white, are women, and 70 percent are non-white.
The court decision didn’t just impact the LAPD. It changed the face of policing across the country and set a legal precedent that would help women in all fields.
So, when I celebrated the latest publication of Busting the Brass Ceiling earlier this week, I celebrated Fanchon Blake as well. We all owe her. I’m thrilled that she is finally claiming her rightful place in history.
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