Marvel Cooke

Marvel Jackson Cooke (April 4, 1903 – November 29, 2000) was a pioneering American journalist, writer, and civil rights activist. She was the first African-American woman to work at a mainstream white-owned newspaper.

Early life and education

Marvel Jackson was the first black child to be born in Mankato, Minnesota. Her parents were Madison Jackson and Amy Wood Jackson. After first purchasing their home, residents held demonstrations on the Jackson's lawn in protest of a black family moving into the area. In addition to writing the column, named "In the Magazines," Cooke laid out the newspaper. Her first series for the paper, beginning April 16, was "Occupation: Streetwalker" which chronicled the process of prostitution in the area; she also published a piece that detailed black children's drug use entitled "From Candy to Heroin." Cooke revealed many upsetting working conditions for domestic laborers, including how the white women who hired black women would pay significantly less than the rate established by the New York State Employment Service.

She also formed a writing group to support creative authors; one of the participants was the first black writer to publish a Book-of-the-Month-Club selection, Richard Wright.

In the 1953, she became the New York director of the National Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions. The National Council brought together artists, scientists, and professionals for political unity; Arthur Miller and John Randolph were members.

In 1953, when she was called twice to testify regarding her involvement with the Communist Party before Senator Joseph McCarthy, in New York and Washington DC, she pleaded the Fifth Amendment.

Cooke began working with the Angela Davis Defense Committee in 1969 and she volunteered as national legal defense secretary of the Angela Davis Defense Fund in 1971. She coordinated committee activities in New York, raised money for Angela Davis's defense, and organized a rally at Madison Square Gardens. The rally had 16,000 participants and raised $40,000. In her later years, Cooke became national vice-chairman of the American-Soviet Friendship Committee.

Cooke died of leukemia in New York in 2000, at the age of 97, having lived most of her life at 409 Edgecombe Avenue, the legendary apartment building in Sugar Hill, that was home to many other black luminaries.

Works Marvel Cooke, "The Bronx Slave Market (1950)", reprinted in Viewpoint Magazine 5 (October 2015). Marvel Cooke, "Occupation Streetwalker" Marvel Cooke, "From Candy to Heroin"