Christian Cooper

The Catalyst for Change in Birding

Portrait of Christian Cooper, adapted from a photo courtesy of Albert Riley Jr / Rockford Register Star.

In 2020, DC Comics hired former comic book writer Christian Cooper to pen a new story for “It’s a Bird,” the semi-fictionalized first chapter in the Represent! digital series inspired by the Central Park incident.

A Central Park incident involving Christian Cooper sparked a hashtag that went viral in 2020: #BlackBirdersWeek. On May 25, 2020, he was birdwatching in a wooded and protected area of the park known as the Ramble when a white woman named Amy Cooper (who is no relation to Christian) crossed his path. She was walking a dog off-leash in violation of the rules of the Ramble. When Christian politely asked her to leash her dog, the situation quickly escalated. Amy became agitated, which prompted Christian to pull out his phone and begin recording. Amy was angry and worked up as she stormed toward him, insisting that he stop recording her. When he did not, she pulled out her phone to call the police, saying, “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”

The video of Amy attempting to weaponize the police against a black birder who was within his rights has since gone viral after Christian’s sister Melody posted it on Twitter. The world watched as she called the police and, speaking frantically, said that Christian was threatening her and her dog. Amy Cooper lost her job at the investment firm Franklin Templeton. The Manhattan district attorney also charged her with falsely reporting an incident in the third degree. In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Christian later wrote:

I think it's a mistake to focus on this one individual. The important thing the incident highlights is the long-standing, deep-seated racial bias against us black and brown folk that permeates the United States.”

Portrait of Christian Cooper with his spark bird, the Red-winged Blackbird. Illustrated by Daniel J. Middleton.

He chose not to cooperate with the prosecution, which ultimately dropped the charges against Amy Cooper. But the incident led to a new state Senate bill that now criminalizes false race-based 911 calls. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it into law in June 2020.

Christian Cooper, who was born in 1963, grew up on Long Island in New York. He keeps his personal life private for the most part, but his father was Francis Hedgeman Cooper, a science teacher and civil rights activist. Francis led a chapter of Congress of Racial Equality on Long Island. His mother taught English. Christian’s love of birds began in childhood. During a cross-country trip to California, he occupied himself by reading a bird field guide. When they arrived in California, he pointed out a magpie to his parents’ surprise.

Christian attended Harvard in 1980 and graduated with a bachelor’s in government in 1984. During his time at Harvard, Christian joined the Harvard Ornithological Club and became its president. Christian grew up reading comics and was a big fan of Marvel superheroes. Instead of pursuing a career that was better suited to his degree, Christian applied at Marvel Comics and became an associate editor. He left the company in the late 1990s and gave up on comics for a time. In May 2001, he joined Health Science Communications, an advertising agency he stayed with for almost twenty years, leaving in October 2020 as senior editorial director.

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This article appears in 12 Modern Black Birders.

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