Carlos A. Cooks

Carlos A. Cooks was born in the Dominican Republic on June 23, 1913 to James Henry Cooks and Alice Cooks, who were originally from the neighboring island of St. Martin.[1] 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.[2] 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.

He died in Harlem, New York, on May 5, 1966. He died at age 53. [3]

Cooks philosophical idol, who played the most important role in his political life and career, was Marcus Garvey. His exposure to Garvey began as early as childhood days when he was taken to meetings of the Garvey Movements by his father and uncle. He then went on join the Garvey Union and its Universal African Legion. It is also said that at age nineteen, Cooks was knighted by Garvey, becoming a member of the movement.

Cooks admired Garvey beyond compare. He regarded him as self-less and argued that all the thoughts and actions throughout his life were devoted towards the upliftment and improvement of the status of Black People in the United States of America. Unlike Garvey, Cooks was very skeptical of W. E. B. duBois, who he regarded as a white hireling of the NAACP. In his work, entitled Marcus Garvey Champion of African Redemption, Cooks describes duBois as an opposition to Garveyism who attacked and ridiculed the movement through his magazine Crisis.

Many have accredited Cooks' development of the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement (ANPM) as significantly inspired by Marcus Garvey and his teachings of Pan-Africanism and Black Liberation.

Born out of Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement (ANPM) was started by Carlos Cooks on June 23, 1941.[4] He envisioned the ANPM 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."[5]

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)

• Carlos A. Cooks, "The Ideological Son of Marcus Mosiah Garvey."(archive), BN Village
• Carlos Cooks and Black Nationalism from Garvey to Malcolm by Robert Harris (Author), Nyota Harris (Author), Grandassa Harris (Editor)
• Carlos A. Cooks at Find A Grave