Black General Lives Up to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream

Jerome Gary Cooper, a young black growing up in Mobile, Ala., in the 1950s, had a dream.

It was perhaps not as bold as the one enunciated in 1963 by Martin Luther King Jr., who envisioned equality for all Americans, but it was nevertheless startling. Cooper dreamed that one day he would be commandant of the United States Marine Corps.

Cooper hasn’t yet reached that goal and concedes, with a broad smile, that he probably never will. But as a brigadier general in the Marine Corps Reserve and one of only two black Marine generals, Cooper has already fulfilled the faith embodied in King’s dream.

In addition to his Marine Corps duty, Cooper has served as one of Alabama’s first black state legislators, has been head of Alabama’s Social Services Department and has been a successful businessman.

And as the speaker at ceremonies here today marking the 56th birthday of the slain civil rights leader, Cooper will emphasize the need to ensure that King’s dream continues to live.

“I think that we must continue Martin Luther King’s relentless pursuit of his dream,” Cooper said in an interview Monday. “His impact on society carried over into the Marine Corps and helped change it much for the better.

Morale a Vital Factor “It is vital that the Marine Corps continue to enhance morale and combat efficiency by making sure that petty prejudices, that individual racism, are dealt with, that equal opportunities for women and minorities are more than just a piece of paper tacked to a bulletin board.

“We’re fooling ourselves if we can take all officers and (non-officers) and eliminate all prejudices . . . but we can raise the level of sensitivity to the need to treat everyone equally.”

In many ways, Cooper has been at the cutting edge of those military changes.

Cooper was the first black Marine officer to lead an infantry company into combat, in 1967 in Vietnam. He is one of only two black generals. (The other, Maj. Gen. Frank E. Peterson, commands the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing based in Okinawa.)

As a reserve general, Cooper serves as deputy commander of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C., and has advised three Marine commandants on ways to improve the service’s race relations.

“I guess that Dr. King’s dream has a lot of meaning to me since when I first became a Marine (in 1958), segregation was the law (in the South) and I had to sit in the back of the bus while in uniform on leave,” Cooper said.

“I had a lot to prove at that time. In order to survive, I had to stay on my afterburner all the time. Remember, the Corps was integrated but there were no more than five or six black officers.”

Cooper said he concentrated on being “the best damn Marine infantry officer in the Corps,” especially during his tour in Vietnam as captain of a rifle company.

“I was not a racial affairs consultant,” Cooper said. “If a (white) buddy called me and said, ‘Hey, Cooper, I got a problem,’ I would help out, like suggesting he not call black Marines ‘boy’ or something. But I avoided it. After all, I didn’t call my white friends all the time and ask their advice on handling white Marines.”

Cooper left active duty in 1969, after 12 years, to return to Mobile to take over the family insurance business after his father’s death.

“I cried the day I left,” Cooper admitted.

But Cooper wanted to remain a Marine and receive promotions, so he stayed in the reserve, which has stringent regulations on military training and physical fitness.

Cooper puts in 240 days a year on reserve duties, ranging from work at Parris Island to visiting recruiters throughout the eastern United States to serving on promotion boards at Marine headquarters in Washington.

Even though there are close to 1,000 black men and women serving as Marine officers today, Cooper still believes there should be more.

“We’ve got to provide more role models for the younger (black) Marines so they will stay in the service and have that chance someday to become commandant. The numbers are still not great.”

He points out, however, that there has been tremendous progress in a service that only took its first black recruits 42 years ago --under World War II pressure from the Department of War.

Cooper believes the Corps has made giant strides, especially in the last five years, since racial problems that he helped calm as a reserve colonel serving as an adviser to top Marine officials.

“It feels even better to be a Marine today,” Cooper said. “But it’s always been a good feeling,” he added, citing the Montford Point Marine Assn., an organization of former Marines who are black. Those World War II veterans were the first blacks to become Marines and spent their time at a segregated barracks area at Camp Lejeune, N.C., called Montford Point.

“Amazing that even though they had some very rough times, they still love the Corps,” Cooper said.