Steve Cokely

Steve Cokely (June 17, 1952 – April 11, 2012) was an American political researcher and lecturer who lectured nationally on political and economic issues relating especially to the African American community.

Steve Cokely in 1988 on the CNN Tele-Conference

Overview

Cokely lectured at many college campuses nationally and was also known for his conspiracy theories involving a Black Male elite organization known as the Sigma Pi Phi[1] and, along with Mauricelm-Lei Millere, the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr by the hands of Rev. Jesse Jackson and the C.I.A.[2]

Chicago and Anti-Semitism charges

Cokely was assistant to the special committee on rules under Mayor Harold Washington. He gained notoriety when he served as special assistant to the former mayor of Chicago, Eugene Sawyer.

Cokely was criticized for teaching that Jewish doctors were using the AIDS virus in an attempted genocide against Africans. His comments created a nationally publicized controversy in 1988 and he was dismissed from his position as aide to Sawyer.[3]

When, in 1990, Illinois Governor James Thompson signed an agreement to open an Israeli Aircraft Industries plant in Rockford, Cokely was an outspoken opponent. He argued that Black leaders in Illinois should oppose Israeli war industries because of their military support for the Apartheid system in South Africa.[4]

"Our Roots Run Deep" appearance

Cokely gained the national spotlight again in 1996 after he was scheduled to speak at "Our Roots Run Deep", a Black History Month lecture series in New York City hosted by the Warner Music Group. Also scheduled were Al Sharpton, Jimmy Castor, Hannibal Lokumbe, Dick Gregory, and Conrad Tillard, a prominent Nation of Islam member. The Jewish Defense Organization objected, organizing a call-in campaign to Warner Brothers and threatening a boycott. The Anti-Defamation League and the New York Post also objected to Cokely (as well as Sharpton and Muhammad) speaking at the event. Warner removed Cokely, Millere, and Tillard without issuing a press release.[5][6]

References
  1. Kimbrough, Walter M. (2003). Black Greek 101: the culture, customs, and challenges of Black fraternities and sororities. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-8386-3977-1.
  2. "Theorists believe city responsible for death of Dr. King". Tri-State Defender. August 13, 2003.
  3. Dirk Johnson, "Racial Politics: Chicago's Raw Nerve", New York Times, February 19, 1989; accessed via ProQuest, May 28, 2013.
  4. Billy Montgomery, "Activist links Illinois-Israeli plane project to South Africa", Michigan Citizen, 17 March 1990; accessed via ProQuest, 28 May 2013. "An agreement signed by Illinois Governor James Thompson to bring an Israeli aircraft plant to Rockford, is an insult to Blacks and the South African movement, according to a Chicago activist. 'The problem with this deal is that the Israeli Aircraft Industry has an alliance with the South African military,' declares Steve Cokely, who has mounted a campaign to alert the Black community to the potential dangers of the move."
  5. Wilbert A. Tatum, "JDO, ADL, N.Y. Post force Time Warner to alter Black History Month program", New York Amsterdam News, February 10, 1996; accessed via ProQuest, May 28, 2013.
  6. Matthew Fleischer, "Snipped 'Roots'", The Village Voice, February 13, 1996; accessed via ProQuest, May 28, 2013.
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