Ten years ago, I helped eighty-something-year-old Fanchon Blake write her memoir Busting the Brass Ceiling. Regrettably, we were never able to find a traditional publisher for the book, even with a foreword written by bestselling writer Joseph Wambaugh, known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police work in the United States. Although Fanchon died five years ago, I’ve decided to self-publish Busting the Brass Ceiling this fall. Because her story of breaking the code of silence, challenging the policing status quo and fighting for equality deserves to be told.
In 1948, at the age of 27, Fanchon joined the LAPD. Although she loved being a cop, she chafed at the boys-club atmosphere that didn’t allow women to promote beyond the rank of sergeant. When a plan designed to completely phase out women officers was introduced, she defied the accepted code of silence and challenged the plan in front of TV cameras and the Los Angeles Police Commission.
Her speech made no difference. Fanchon realized that she would never be able to change the LAPD’s anti-female culture from within. So she sued, initiating one of the country’s landmark Title VII cases with little to no help from anyone.
During the last couple of months as I’ve plunged into reading through piles of raw material and revising the manuscript, I’ve uncovered words of wisdom not only about women’s equality and how important it is to break the code of silence, but about policing in general. Her insights are just as pertinent today as they were when she wrote them more than a decade ago.
The anger inflamed by cries of police brutality being ignored has not abated in the decades following the Watts riots. And it won’t as long as suspects feel the police department is unfair and scared officers respond with antagonism and use unnecessary force to keep a suspect under control.
Fanchon may have been talking about events and procedures that date back more than 50 years, but it’s as if she’s commenting on today’s circumstances.
I’m even more excited about Fanchon’s memoir Busting the Brass Ceiling than I was ten years ago. I hope you will be too. For updates about the book’s progress and publication, make sure to sign up for my newsletter.
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