Photos courtesy of Pat Smith
By Constance Garcia-Barrio
Travel was one of the many things that shaped the life of Dorothy F. Cousins, who achieved historic firsts for Black women in law enforcement in Philadelphia. Cousins, 93, died of lung disease on February 29 in her Mt. Airy home.
In the beginning, Dorothy Cousins as part of the Philadelphia Police Department in the mid-1950s.
The first crucial journey took place before Cousins was born. Her grandparents moved from Goochland County, Virginia, to Philadelphia in the 1920s with the first wave of the Great Migration. The move meant more job opportunities for the family, said Cousins’ daughter, Pat Smith.
Dorothy with her beautiful great-grandchildren.
“When I was 12, we moved from North Philadelphia to Durham Street in Mt. Airy,” Smith said.
Despite the moves, the family continued honoring its Southern traditions and values.
“My grandparents, who lived with us, used to invite their children and grandchildren to dinner on Sundays,” Smith said. “My grandmother made fried chicken, string beans, and potato salad, my grandfather’s favorites. We were poor, although we didn’t know it, but rich in other ways.”
Cousins attended Philadelphia High School for Girls, which had just a few Black students in the 1940s. The girls banded together and formed lifelong friendships. One friend, Barbara Harris, who would become the first woman bishop of the worldwide Anglican Church, was Cousins’ classmate. “Mom joined the Episcopal Church because of Barbara.” Smith added.
At Girls High, Cousins learned more lessons than those in textbooks. Her older brother had fought in World War II as a Tuskegee Airman. He gave Cousins his wings, which she wore to school. When Cousins explained the significance of the pin to white fellow students, they claimed that no Black pilots had fought in the war.
“My mother learned to stand her ground and insist on the truth,” Smith said.
Cousins gave birth to Smith at 19.
“She struggled as a single mother,” Smith said. “My grandparents helped her rear me. My mother couldn’t afford college, so she worked as a secretary at Sears Roebuck.”
Cousins also worked at the Navy Yard before starting her career in law enforcement. She became one of the first women accepted at the police academy in the 1950s, and one of a handful of Black women in the police department in 1955.
Cousins advanced on the force, but ran into roadblocks due to Frank Rizzo, the police commissioner from 1968 to 1971, Smith said.
“Rizzo was a big part of holding my mother back,” she said. “He felt that women should work in the Juvenile Aid Division. My mother always scored high on written exams, but the tests had an oral component too.”
The latter, often graded more subjectively, frequently lowered Ms. Cousins’ score, Smith said.
Travel helped Cousins push past racist and sexist barriers.
“Mom saw that other countries did things differently. In Europe, she met Black people straight from Africa. She dated a gentleman who was an Olympic athlete, so she traveled to the Olympic Games in Mexico, Munich, and Montreal in the 1960s and 70s,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, Cousins’ assignment in the Juvenile Aid Division meant perks for Smith.
“Mom had to work all the parades,” Smith said. “She would park me and my cousin in one spot, then help the parents who’d lost their children in the crowd or help children who’d wandered away from their parents.”
That left Smith and her cousin free to enjoy the activities.
Smith and her cousin also got an insider’s view of the police department’s Hero Thrill Shows, the proceeds of which paid the college tuition of police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty.
“We would meet some of the officers who performed,” Smith said. “We felt special.”
Smith also experienced the flip side of having a parent in the police department.
“You knew the difference between right and wrong,” she said. “You knew not to get into fights.”
At times, avoiding fights took some doing. As a tall, fair-skinned Black girl, Smith sometimes became a target of taunts.
“I learned to talk my way out of playground challenges,” said Smith, who attended the Roosevelt School in Germantown and later Germantown High School.
Cousins was a resource that helped family members avert trouble. A relative who used to visit a friend in a white neighborhood was often stopped by the police because he was Black. Mentioning Cousins’ name got him out of tight spots, Smith said.
Cousins’ tenacity and broad worldview paid off. In 1983, Edward Rendell, who was District Attorney at the time, named Cousins chief of county detectives, a position in which she supervised 93 detectives. In the 1980s, she became commander of the 39th District and managed more than 200 officers.
In the late 1980s, Cousins became director of security for the Housing Authority, a position from which she retired in the mid-1990s.
By the early 2000s, Cousins had visited every continent but Antarctica. At 84, going there topped her bucket list. “I didn’t think twice about it,” Smith said. “We flew to Buenos Aires [Argentina]. We went to tango clubs and enjoyed the culture, but there were few Black people there.” The women took a cruise ship from Buenos Aires to the Falkland Islands, a remote British territory in the South Atlantic with lots of penguins and elephant seals. From there, the ship took them to Antarctica, fulfilling Cousins’ dream.
“Our stateroom had a little balcony, and my mother enjoyed the view,” Smith said. “We only got off the ship for excursions. The crew let us know when they thought the walk would be too strenuous.”
The world became Cousins’ classroom, teaching her things that she passed on to Smith, her two granddaughters, and her three great-granddaughters.
“Her most important lesson was never give up” Smith said. “Do what you have to do to reach your goal.”
Visitation with the family will be from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 23, at St Luke’s Episcopal Church, 5421 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia.
Donations in Dorothy Cousins’ name may be made to the Scholarship Fund of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., Box 18966, Philadelphia, Pa. 19119.
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