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Carlos A. Cooks

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Dominican Republic-born Black nationalist activist

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Carlos A. Cooks (1913-1966) was a politician from Dominican Republic.

Overview

Cooks was born in San Pedro de Macoris Dominican Republic on June 23, 1913, to James Henry Cooks and Alice Cooks, who were originally from the island of St. Martin. His education took place mostly in Santo Domingo until moving to New York in 1929 where he went on to higher learning. Cooks was known for his love of sports and his expertise in boxing. His intellect was recognized from an early age and he attended the leadership school in the Voodoo Sacré Society. Cooks' involvement in the UNIA comes as no surprise as both his uncle and father were among the many St. Martiners who were members of the Marcus Garvey-led organization.

He was a key link in the history of Black American nationalism between Marcus Garvey before him and Malcolm X, whom he influenced. Carlos Cooks administered the Advance Division of the UNIA after Marcus Garvey was deported. He founded the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement.

Cooks coined the phrase "buy Black" many years before it was popularized by others, The Amsterdam News reported.

Cooks died in Harlem, New York, on May 5, 1966, aged 52, although the age was initially misreported as 53.

Cooks and Garvey

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Marcus Garvey was an influence on Cooks, who was taken to meetings of the Garvey Movements as a child by his father and uncle. He then went on join the Garvey Union and its Universal African Legion. It is said that at age nineteen Cooks was knighted by Garvey, becoming a member of the movement.

Cooks argued that all Garvey's actions were devoted towards the upliftment and improvement of the status of Black People in the United States of America. Unlike Garvey, Cooks was skeptical of W. E. B. Du Bois, whom he regarded as a white hireling of the NAACP. In his work, entitled Marcus Garvey Champion of African Redemption, Cooks describes Du Bois as an opponent of Garveyism, and as attacking and ridiculing the movement through his magazine Crisis.

The African Nationalist Pioneer Movement

Born out of Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement was started by Carlos Cooks on June 23, 1941. He envisioned that movement as "an educational, inspirational, instructive, constructive and expansive society... composed of people desirous of bringing about a progressive, dignified, cultural, fraternal and racial confraternity among the African peoples of the world."

Lectures and works

Some of his most famous works include:

  1. Why Black nationalism
  2. Fundamentalism: A Call to Action
  3. The Nationalist Manifesto
  4. Racial Integration—A Sociological Farce
  5. The Tragic Consequences of White Psychology
  6. American Tradition Vetoes Integration
  7. Strange, Isn't It?
  8. Harlem—Citadel of the Caste
  9. Marcus Garvey Champion of African Redemption
  10. Lumumba foils Colonialist Plot to Partition the Congo
  11. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana
  12. Jomo Kenyatta, Man of Africa

Cooks also gave public lectures of Africanism between 1945 and 1966. Some of his most famous ones include:

  1. Passing the Baton Garvey to Cooks (June to December 1954)
  2. Hair Conking; Buy Black (May–December 1955)
  3. Gamal Abdel Nasser; Marcus Garvey Day (May–December 1955)
  4. Ras and the Caste (January–December 1956)
  5. Ethiopia; Haiti; Liberia; Kenya; the Black Woman (January–December 1966)
  6. Native Africans; Civil Rights (April 3, 1966)
  7. Religion (April 8, 1966)
  8. Lucifer, God and Civil Rights (April 10, 1966)
  9. The Caste Woman (April 15, 1966)
  10. Organization ( April 15, 1966)
  11. Yankee-Doodleism vs. Nationalism
  12. Jews, Crackers and the Caste ( April 24, 1966)

References

  1. ^ Harris, Robert; Harris, Nyota; Harris, Grandassa, eds. (1992). Carlos Cooks and Black nationalism from Garvey to Malcolm. Dover, MA: Majority Press. ISBN 0912469285. OCLC 24284300.
  2. "Carlos A. Cooks, 53, Led African Nationalist Group". The New York Times. May 7, 1966. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 10, 2020.

External links

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