As we celebrate Black History Month, there is a tendency to limit Black history to the household names who have prominently emerged from key achievements or landmark developments. Too often unsung are the many people who played vital roles in those achievements and developments, and without whom that progress would not have happened.
This month, I think especially of Stoney and Shirley Cooks. Stoney died last August at the age of 80. Shirley died more recently at 79. Both played important roles in Atlanta, which should be remembered and celebrated, during the Civil Rights Movement and in the civic life of the city and nation.
Stoney and Shirley Cooks met in Atlanta in the mid-1960s when Stoney was working, as I was, for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Shirley was working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Both were organizing grassroots efforts for voter registration in the Southeast. They married in 1970 and were together for the rest of their lives.
What makes their example so important and meaningful to me was the varied ways in which they worked to serve Atlanta over decades. They didn’t do only one thing of significance, they did many. But that is not uncommon for people who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement and went on to define their lives further. Black History Month is a time to recognize that broadly.
It was Stoney Cooks who first urged me to run for Congress in 1970. He managed my first campaign, which was not successful, and every campaign thereafter.
When I served in Congress, Stoney was my chief of staff, orchestrating our work on behalf of Atlanta. When I became ambassador to the United Nations, he was my chief of staff there. When I returned to Atlanta and ran for mayor, he managed my initial campaign and my re-election.
When we were at the United Nations, Shirley Cooks worked down the street for the African American Institute, collaborating with us on a range of issues affecting Africa. She later served as legislative affairs director for the institute in Washington, D.C.
Shirley’s talents were so broad, that when I became mayor of Atlanta, I appointed her director of cultural affairs. She had experience in cultural affairs from her work with the African American Institute and she was steeped in the cultural world, having grown up with her older brother, Harry Belafonte. She later served as deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs at the U.S. Department of State under Madeleine Albright, and subsequently as chief of staff to three members of Congress.
Credit: Courtesy of Cooks family
Credit: Courtesy of Cooks family
That’s just scratching the surface of their careers and impact. But the number and range of their accomplishments are impressive. As I think of so many people who worked with me in the Civil Rights Movement, many of them in Atlanta, I think of the crucial roles they played, the vital differences they made, and the collaborations that were so essential to all that was achieved.
I also think of their many accomplishments afterwards. Too often, both are overlooked. Today’s images of the Civil Rights Movement typically focus on leaders and marchers, when there were so many organizers without whom nothing would have happened.
The transition after the height of the Civil Rights Movement was difficult. We had been part of an extraordinarily exhilarating, demanding and dangerous initiative to transform our nation nonviolently. We had helped achieve changes that many thought were impossible. We had found meaning in our work to a degree that would be hard to replace.
As we celebrate Black History Month, let’s recognize Stoney and Shirley Cooks for all they did for Atlanta and for all they represent: activists in the Civil Rights Movement, who should be honored for that work and for their subsequent commitments to the civic life of our city and nation.
Atlanta City Council member Andrea L. Boone and I will be hosting a memorial event in honor of Stoney and Shirley Cooks at City Hall on Monday. It is a recognition they both greatly deserve.
Andrew Young represented Atlanta in the U.S. Congress, served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and was twice elected mayor of Atlanta.
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