Community honors Louisville's first black female police officer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A lost icon of Louisville's history has finally received the recognition she is due.

Police officers of past and present dedicated a monument Tuesday morning at the gravest of Bertha Whedbee at Louisville Cemetery. Whedbee was the city's first black female police officer, hired in 1922 and had been laid to rest for nearly 60 years in an unmarked grave.

"It felt wrong," said retired LMPD Sgt. Chuck Cooper. "It felt like there was an important part of our history that was slipping through the cracks. Bertha Whedbee was a fabulous person in our community."

For Cooper, resurrecting Whedbee's story was like one last investigation: There was a grave to find that was hidden from view, the Whedbee relatives to locate who'd long moved from Louisville and finally securing the funding to right history with an appropriate display. Cooper worked with a team of retired officers who shared the Whedbee story in a conversation with a private Facebook group.

"Her story is so important, because it's a story of persistence and determination," Cooper said. " He service was appreciated and I'm very, very happy."

The ash-colored monument honors both Whedbee and her late husband Dr. Ellis Whedbee. He was one of the founding physicians of Red Cross Hospital, a medical facility in Louisville that cared for black patients who couldn't receive treatment at the city white only hospitals of long ago.

Together, they were trailblazers. In 1922, Jim Crow laws were in full force. Before the civil rights act, before the voting rights, while schools throughout the nation were segregated, blacks were commonly treated as less than human. But despite all of that, Bertha Whedbee stood up for justice against racism and oppression.

"Her son had gotten arrested by the police on trumped up charges, and she went to the police department and protested, gave them a what for," said Metro Councilwoman Councilwoman Cheri Bryant Hamilton. "Three years later, she was on the force."

Hamilton said she learned the stories of the Whedbee family while doing research on Red Cross Hospital. She was born there, and her father practiced at the now closed medical center.

"You have to know your history," Hamilton said. "You have to know what happened before and who helped us get where we are. And so to see Dr. Whedbee, as well as Bertha Par Whedbee, getting this recognition from the Louisville police department is just magnificent."

Whedbee stayed on the force until a change of administration in 1929 and died in 1960. Organizers said her relatives no longer live in Louisville, but there are still people in town who remember the family's impact.

"They were the leaders," retired Louisville teacher Marshall Abstain said. "Not only that, but they kind of put their hands on top of our heads. We really rode on some big shoulders."

Abstain taught African-American history at Seneca High School for years. He said the Whedbees were always part of his curriculum, remembering how their son tried to recruit him to attend Kentucky State University after graduating among one of Louisville's first integrated classes at Shawnee High School.

"Absolutely overdue, no question about it," Abstain said of the monument. "It should have been done, but it's done now, and that's what counts."

A GoFundMe page raised $3,700 for the headstone. Cooper said retired and active-duty officers from across the country donated money toward it. The memorial Tuesday included police honors with tributes by the Louisville Metro Police Department's honor guard and the Louisville Police Pipes and Drums.