Samuel DuBois Cook

Last updated
Samuel DuBois Cook
Samuel DuBois Cook 2011.jpg
BornNovember 21, 1928
Griffin, Georgia
DiedMay 29, 2017 (age 88)
Alma mater Morehouse College Ohio State University
Employer Duke University

Samuel DuBois Cook (November 21, 1928 - May 29, 2017) [1] was a political scientist, professor, author, administrator, human rights activist, and civil servant. Cook is best known for serving as the first African-American faculty member at Duke University, in 1966, as well as serving as the President of Dillard University from 1975 to 1997. In addition to these accomplishments, Cook was also appointed to the National Council on the Humanities by President Jimmy Carter and the United States Holocaust Memorial Council by President Bill Clinton. Furthermore, he also served as the first black president of the Southern Political Science Association.

Contents

Education

Cook attended Morehouse College where he received an A.B. degree. [1] While at Morehouse College, Cook was the founder and student body president of the campuses chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). [1] He was a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity He also received a M.A. in 1950 and Ph.D. in 1953 from The Ohio State University. [1] Cook was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He has honorary degrees from Morehouse College, The Ohio State University, Dillard University, Illinois College, Duke University, the University of New Orleans and Chicago Theological Seminar. [1]

Career

Cook was a Korean War Veteran and an ordained Deacon. He began teaching at Southern University and Atlanta University. At Atlanta University, Cook held a chair position in the Political Science Department. Utilizing this position, Cook participated in the Civil Rights Movement by moderating meetings between activists and students. In 1966, Cook became the first Black professor to hold a regular faculty position at a white southern university when he accepted a position at Duke University. [2] Cook spent 22 years as the President of Dillard University in New Orleans, beginning in 1975. [1] While serving as president of Dillard University, Cook founded the Center for Black-Jewish relations.

Legacy

Samuel DuBois Cook is remembered for promoting positive societal change through his analysis of the impact of race in post World War II southern politics and advancing equality for all American citizens during his time as a scholar and activist. [3] Cook also played a prominent role in promoting a shift in relations between African Americans and Jewish Americans with his establishment of the Center for Black-Jewish relations while serving as the President of Dillard University. Cook was a friend and classmate of a fellow civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. [4] [5] He was the president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Moreover, he held a chair position of the Presidents of the United Negro College Fund.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morehouse College</span> Private college in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.

Morehouse College is a private historically Black, men's, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. Anchored by its main campus of 61 acres (25 ha) near Downtown Atlanta, the college has a variety of residential dorms and academic buildings east of Ashview Heights. Along with Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and the Morehouse School of Medicine, the college is a member of the Atlanta University Center consortium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Bond</span> American social activist (1940–2015)

Horace Julian Bond was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1971, he co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, and served as its first president for nearly a decade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dillard University</span> Private college in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

Dillard University is a private, historically black university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 and incorporating earlier institutions founded as early as 1869 after the American Civil War, it is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hope (educator)</span> African-American educator and political activist

John Hope, born in Augusta, Georgia, was an American educator and political activist, the first African-descended president of both Morehouse College in 1906 and of Atlanta University in 1929, where he worked to develop graduate programs. Both are historically Black colleges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Mays</span> American Baptist minister

Benjamin Elijah Mays was an American Baptist minister and American rights leader who is credited with laying the intellectual foundations of the American civil rights movement. Mays taught and mentored many influential activists, including Martin Luther King Jr, Julian Bond, Maynard Jackson, and Donn Clendenon, among others. His rhetoric and intellectual pursuits focused on Black self-determination. Mays' commitment to social justice through nonviolence and civil resistance were cultivated from his youth through the lessons imbibed from his parents and eldest sister. The peak of his public influence coincided with his nearly three-decade tenure as the sixth president of Morehouse College, a historically black institution of higher learning, in Atlanta, Georgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hope Franklin</span> American historian (1915–2009)

John Hope Franklin was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin is best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and continually updated. More than three million copies have been sold. In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Michael Lucius Lomax is an American educator and former elected official who has served as president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund since 2004. From 1997 to 2004, he served as president of Dillard University, a historically Black university (HBCU). Lomax was elected as a member and then chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, the first African American elected official in history to lead a major county government in the State of Georgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Lowery</span> American minister and civil rights activist (1921–2020)

Joseph Echols Lowery was an American minister in the United Methodist Church and leader in the civil rights movement. He founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr. and others, serving as its vice president, later chairman of the board, and its third president from 1977 to 1997. Lowery participated in most of the major activities of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and continued his civil rights work into the 21st century. He was called the "Dean of the Civil Rights Movement."

The Rosenwald Fund was established in 1917 by Julius Rosenwald and his family for "the well-being of mankind." Rosenwald became part-owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1895, serving as its president from 1908 to 1922, and chairman of its board of directors until his death in 1932.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. T. Vivian</span> American minister, writer, and civil rights activist (1924–2020)

Cordy Tindell Vivian was an American minister, author, and close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. He resided in Atlanta, Georgia, and founded the C. T. Vivian Leadership Institute, Inc. He was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Samuel J. Cook, III is an American playwright, journalist, educator and writer currently serving as director of the 7th Ward Neighborhood Center in New Orleans, a non-profit organization designed to improve quality of life conditions for residents of New Orleans' historic 7th Ward. His one-act play Barren Fields won an NAACP ACT-SO medal in 2002. Also an educator, he formerly worked with at-risk youth at Walter L. Cohen Senior High in New Orleans. He was born in Toledo, Ohio.

Thomas Covington Dent was an African-American poet and writer. Dent came from a prominent and socially aware family. Due to this, he was able to receive multiple levels of education at differing institutions. He attended college at Morehouse College and served as editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, The Maroon Tiger. Upon graduation, Dent enrolled in graduate studies at Syracuse University, before joining the army for a two-year stint. He then moved to New York and worked towards the advancement of civil rights. Later, he returned home to New Orleans and began cultivating and mentoring young African-American writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William A. Darity Jr.</span> American economist (born 1953)

William A. "Sandy" Darity Jr. is an American economist and social scientist at Duke University. Darity's research spans economic history, development economics, economic psychology, and the history of economic thought, but most of his research is devoted to group-based inequality, especially with respect to race and ethnicity. His 2005 paper in the Journal of Economics and Finance established Darity as the 'founder of stratification economics.' His varied research interests have also included the trans-Atlantic slave trade, African American reparations and the economics of black reparations, and social and economic policies that affect inequities by race and ethnicity. For the latter, he has been described as "perhaps the country’s leading scholar on the economics of racial inequality."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amistad Research Center</span> African-American studies organisation

The Amistad Research Center (ARC) is an independent archives and manuscripts repository in the United States that specializes in the history of African Americans and ethnic minorities. It is one of the first institutions of its kind in the United States to collect African American ethnic historical records and to document the modern Civil Rights Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Woodrow Williams</span> African American civil rights activist (1912–1970)

Samuel Woodrow Williams was a Baptist minister, professor of philosophy and religion, and Civil Rights activist. Williams was born on February 12, 1912, in Sparkman then grew up in Chicot County, Arkansas. An African American, Williams attended Morehouse College where he received his bachelor's degree in philosophy and later attended Howard University earning his master's degree in divinity.

Albert Walter Dent was an academic administrator who served initially as business administrator of Flint-Goodridge Hospital and later as president of Dillard University (1941–1969), a predominantly black liberal arts college in New Orleans, Louisiana. In these roles, he was a community leader who improved education and health care for African-Americans and impoverished people in the American South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hervey Wheeler</span> American banker, attorney and civil rights leader

John Hervey Wheeler was an American bank president, businessman, civil rights leader, and educator based in North Carolina. Throughout his life, Wheeler was recognized for his accomplishments by various institutions across the country. John H. Wheeler started as a bank teller at Mechanics and Farmers Bank, and worked his way up to become the bank's president in 1952. In the 1960s, Wheeler became increasingly active in United States politics, carrying several White House positions appointed by Presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F. DuBois Bowman</span> American statistician

Fredrick DuBois Bowman is an American statistician who is the Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. His research applies statistical analysis to brain imaging to better understand Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease. Bowman is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Simpson Davage</span> American academic administrator (1879–1976)

Rev. Matthew Simpson Davage also known as M. S. Davage, was an American educator, college and university president, businessperson, and minister. He served as president of George R. Smith College ; Haven Institute ; Samuel Huston College ; Rust College ; and Clark College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Gomer Du Bois</span> American civil rights activist (1870–1950)

Nina Gomer Du Bois was an American civil rights activist, Baháʼí Faith practitioner, and homemaker. She served on the executive committee of the Women's International Circle of Peace and Foreign Relations in 1927, which was largely responsible for organizing the fourth Pan-African Congress in New York. Du Bois was the first wife of civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois and the mother of the educator Yolande Du Bois.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "About Samuel DuBois Cook | The Cook Center on Social Equity". socialequity.duke.edu. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  2. "Cook, Samuel DuBois Cook". kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  3. Roberts, Sam (2017-06-08). "Samuel D. Cook, Educator Who Pierced Campus Color Barriers, Dies at 88". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-02-20.
  4. College, Morehouse. "Morehouse College | House News". www.morehouse.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
  5. Leatherman, Courtney (November 28, 1990). "Head of Dillard U. Seeks to Heal Rift between Blacks and Jews". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Vol. 37, no. 13. p. A3. ProQuest   214684940.