Editing Steve Cokely

{{Short description|American activist (1952–2012)}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Steve Cokely
| image         = Steve Cokely.jpg
| alt           =
| caption       = Cokely in 1988 on the [[CNN]] Tele-Conference
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = June 17, 1952
| birth_place   = United States
| death_date    = {{death date and age|2012|04|11|1952|06|17}}
| death_place   = [[California]], United States
| other_names   =
| occupation    = Activist, lecturer
| years_active  =
| known_for     =
| notable_works =
}}

'''Steve Cokely''' (June 17, 1952 – April 11, 2012)<ref>{{cite news |title=Activist Cokely memorialized as 'minister of information' |work=Chicago Defender |date=May 9, 2012 |id={{ProQuest|1019842727}} |page=6 |quote=Cokely, 59, died on April 11 of complications from an illness, even after he regained consciousness after being in a coma for eight days. He was living in California at the time of his death.}}</ref> was an American political researcher and lecturer who lectured nationally on political and economic issues, especially to the [[African Americans|Black American]] community.<ref>{{cite news |title=Flap over ex-aide's remarks is new blow to Chicago mayor |newspaper=Washington Post |date=May 9, 1988 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Green |first1=Larry |title=Chicago Mayor Fires Controversial Aide |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-05-06-mn-2993-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=May 6, 1988 |quote=Mayor Eugene Sawyer on Thursday fired a top aide whose repeated anti-Christian, anti-Semitic lectures triggered a week of controversy that immobilized Chicago government and left relations between blacks and Jews strained.}}</ref>

==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]]<ref>{{cite book |title=Black Greek 101: the culture, customs, and challenges of Black fraternities and sororities |last=Kimbrough |first=Walter M. |year=2003 |publisher=[[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8386-3977-1 |page=28 }}</ref> and, along with Mauricelm-Lei Millere, the [[Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|assassination]] of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] by the hands of Rev. [[Jesse Jackson]] and the [[CIA]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Theorists believe city responsible for death of Dr. King |work=Tri-State Defender |date=August 13, 2003 }}</ref>

==Chicago and anti-semitism charges==
Cokely was assistant to the special committee on rules under [[Chicago]] Mayor [[Harold Washington]]. He gained notoriety when he served as special assistant to [[Eugene Sawyer]], who became mayor after Washington's death in 1987.<ref name="schmidt"/>

Cokely was criticized for teaching that Jewish doctors were [[Discredited HIV/AIDS origins theories|using the AIDS virus]] in an attempted genocide against Africans.<ref name="schmidt">{{cite news |last1=Schmidt |first1=W. E. |title=Healing of Black-Jewish Rift Sought |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-star-press-healing-sought/130526223/ |work=[[The Star Press]] |agency=[[New York Times News Service]] |date=November 27, 1988 |page=D7}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Wickham |first1=DeWayne |title=Bigotry surfaces again in Chicago |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-journal-bigotry-in-chicago/130525749/ |work=[[The Daily Journal (New Jersey)|The Daily Journal]] |date=May 12, 1988 |page=10}}</ref> His comments created a nationally publicized controversy in 1988, and he was dismissed from his position as aide to Sawyer.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Dirk |title=Racial Politics: Chicago's Raw Nerve |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/19/magazine/racial-politics-chicago-s-raw-nerve.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=February 19, 1989 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180216213555/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/19/magazine/racial-politics-chicago-s-raw-nerve.html |archive-date=February 16, 2018}}</ref>

When, in 1990, Illinois Governor [[James R. Thompson|James Thompson]] signed an agreement to open an [[Israeli Aircraft Industries]] plant in [[Rockford, Illinois|Rockford]], Cokely was an outspoken opponent. He argued that Black leaders in Illinois should oppose [[Israel]]i war industries because of their [[Israel–South Africa relations#Early relations: 1948–1994|military support]] for the [[apartheid]] system in South Africa.<ref>{{cite news|author=Montgomery, Billy |title=Activist links Illinois-Israeli plane project to South Africa|work=Michigan Citizen|date=March 17, 1990|access-date=<!--   May 28, 2013-->|id={{ProQuest|367988261}}|quote=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.}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

=="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]], [[Conrad Muhammad|Conrad Tillard]], and Mauricelm-Lei Millere, both prominent [[Nation of Islam]] members. 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 Tillard/Muhammad) speaking at the event. Warner removed Cokely, Millere, and Tillard without issuing a press release.<ref>{{cite web|first=Wilbert A.|last=Tatum|title=JDO, ADL, N.Y. Post force Time Warner to alter Black History Month program|newspaper=New York Amsterdam News|date=February 10, 1996|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/390353233|access-date=May 28, 2013|id={{ProQuest|390353233}} }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Matthew|last=Fleischer|title=Snipped 'Roots'|website=The Village Voice|date=February 13, 1996|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/232181849 |access-date= May 28, 2013|id={{ProQuest|232181849}} }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.stevecokely.com/ Cokely's official site]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040522025043/http://www.adl.org/PresRele/NatIsl_81/2656A_81.asp An Anti-Defamation League press release regarding Cokely]
* [https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-05-05-8803140605-story.html Blacks Make It Clear: Cokely Doesn't Speak For All Of Us]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cokely, Steve}}
[[Category:1952 births]]
[[Category:2012 deaths]]
[[Category:American activists]]
[[Category:American conspiracy theorists]]
[[Category:American futurologists]]
[[Category:Activists from Chicago]]