He was born in 1913 in the Dominican Republic but operated in Harlem from 1929 until his death in 1966. For three decades -1940’s, 1950’s, and 1960’s – he became the single most important individual responsible for keeping the works of Marcus Garvey alive.
Carlos A. Cooks is the ideological son of Marcus Garvey. He organized a “Buy Black” campaign in the 1930s to advance community building; he launched annual Garvey Parades in the 1940s and promoted Black female beauty and natural hairstyles. His argument for mental liberation was grounded in his work with African leaders fighting for territorial decolonization. He promoted a convention in 1959 to eliminate the word “Negro” and to replace it with “Black” and “African.” In sum, Cooks organized economic and cultural activities that became part of the Black Power Movement. His works influenced a new generation of leaders that included Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. He avoided publicity; he was unconcerned with having his name in the press. He seems to have taken the position that if one understood
Garvey, then one would understand his own position. Cooks’ selfless commitment explains the reason why he remains unfamiliar. Cooks’ reluctance to court media attention begins from his formative years. He was reminded in New York of a bond of secrecy that goes back before his migration from the Dominican Republic. Born in the eastern city of San Pedro de Macoris, his career in Harlem was shaped by the story of this city as much as it was linked to the initiatives of his father, James Cooks.
In the 1880s, the sugar industry was established in San Pedro. At the center of production was the exploitation of immigrant workers from many of the Caribbean Islands. James Cooks hailed from St. Martin in the 1890s and rather than falling prey to the giant industry, he gained success as an entrepreneur. In the next century, he was reporting ownership of twelve houses and several other businesses in San Pedro. In this city, he raised his four children with his wife Alice. A father who invested in business but was equally concerned with helping the workers marked the early memories of the son. Cooks Sr. helped to maintain mutual aid and other societies; Carlos was inducted as a child in a Haitian secret society that called him to service and secrecy. However, by 1916, the story of San Pedro was shifting. Haiti and the Dominican Republic came under the occupation of the United States military, and Haitian workers gravitated to the interior of the Dominican Republic and the sugar industry, where the common conditions of exploitation influenced strong bonds among the increasingly diverse community of Black people.
In response to detrimental conditions, workers were seeking to organize, and turned to Garveyism in their reading of the Negro World, now in circulation. In 1919, San Pedro became the center and held branch of the UNIA, Chapter No. 26. This center was also known as
Liberty Hall; the organization was housed in one of the many buildings owned by James Cooks. His involvement along with that of others resulted in his arrest and persecution by the American military. In 1922, James and some members of his family resettled in New York, leaving Carlos in the care of relatives in San Pedro. Carlos remained in the Caribbean for another seven years further immersing himself into the UNIA.
When Carlos arrived in Harlem in 1929, he was ready to assume a role in the Garvey movement. The rest of his family in New York stayed away from this organization, which the law had disliked; but the boy of merely sixteen years of age engaged in activities that were to place him in the Harlem spotlight; he also became a street speaker. In 1932, he became an officer upon the recommendation of Garvey; six years later, in 1938, he headed the UNIA Advance Division earning the name, the “Undaunted”
When Italy’s Benito Mussolini ordered the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, Cooks responded by recruiting people in the community to expel Italian economic “encroachment” in Harlem. The police identified him as the ringleader of a group that attacked white-controlled businesses, which it is claimed, promoted the prostitution of Black women. He then launched the famous “‘Buy Black’ campaign” to advance Black commerce and financial independence. By the end of the decade, the police increased its vigilance over Cooks, as he was now becoming an independent voice.
I n 1943, Cooks was forced to suspend his work with the ANPM when he was drafted to fight in World War II. This enlistment came after his public mockery of the war; he was found guilty of sedition. The incident was publicized in a New York Times piece subtitled: “Alien Dominican Gets 90 Days for Creating Disorder.” Cooks returned from the war in 1946 and with no signs of rehabilitation. After collaborating with a newly formed organization of Benjamin Gibbons and James Lawson, Cooks restarted his ANPM in 1949 and continued unapologetically with Marcus Garvey’s vision.
New Yorkers share their experience visiting Ghana and Liberia with the UNIA-ACL Guided 2019 Year of Return Tour! Inspired to go? Book your spot for the 2020 tour now!
All I have I have given to you. I have sacrificed my home and my loving wife for you. I entrust her to your charge, to protect and defend her in my absence. She is the bravest little woman I know. She has suffered and sacrificed with me for you; therefore, please do not desert her in this dismal hour, when she stands alone. I have left her penniless and helpless to face the world, because I gave all, but her courage is great, and I know she will hold up for you and me.
After my enemies are satisfied, in life or death I shall come back to you to serve even as I have served before. In life I shall be the same; in death I shall be a terror to the foes of Negro Liberty. If death has power, then count on me in death to be the real Marcus Garvey I would like to be. I may come in an earthquake, or a cyclone, or plague or pestilence, or as God would have me, then be assured that I will never desert you and make your enemies triumph over you. Would I not go to hell a million times for you? Would I not like Macbeth’s ghost, walk the earth forever for you? Would I not lose the whole world and eternity for you? Would I not cry forever before the footstool of the Lord Omnipotent for you? Would I not die a million deaths for you? Then, why be sad? Cheer up, and be assured that if it takes a million years the sins of our enemies shall visit the millionth generation of those than hinder and oppress us.
If I die in Atlanta my work shall live, in the physical or spiritual to see the day of Africa’s glory. When I am dead wrap the mantle of the Red, Black and Green around me, for in the new life I shall rise with God’s grace and blessing to lead the millions up the heights of triumph with the colors that you all know. Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for with God’s grace I shall come and bring with me countless millions of Black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life. The civilization of today is gone drunk and crazy with its power and by such it seeks through injustice, fraud and lies to crush the unfortunate. But if I am apparently crushed by the system of influence and misdirected power, my cause shall rise again to plague the conscience of the corrupt. For I am satisfied, and for you, I repeat, I am glad to suffer and even die. Again I say, cheer up, for better days are ahead. I shall write the history that will inspire the millions that are coming and leave the posterity of our enemies to reckon with the hosts for the deeds of their fathers. With God’s dearest blessings, I leave you for awhile.
The God who created the earth; who created the sun that gives us light. The God who holds up the ocean; who makes the thunder roar. Our God who has ears to hear.You who are hidden in the clouds; who watch us from where you are.You see all that the whites have made us suffer. The white man’s god asks him to commit crimes. But the God within us wants us to do good. Our God who is so good, so just, He orders us to revenge our wrongs. It’s He who will direct our arms and bring us the victory. It’s He who will assist us.We all should throw away the image of the white man’s god who is so pitiless. Listen to the voice for liberty that sings in all our hearts.
Bon Dje ki fè la tè. Ki fè soley ki klere nou enro.Bon Dje ki soulve lanmè. Ki fè gronde loray.Bon Dje nou ki gen zorey pou tande.Ou ki kache nan niaj. Kap gade nou kote ou ye la.Ou we tout sa blan fè nou sibi.Dje blan yo mande krim.Bon Dje ki nan nou an vle byen fè.Bon Dje nou an ki si bon, ki si jis, li ordone vanjans.Se li kap kondui branou pou nou ranpote la viktwa.Se li kap ba nou asistans.Nou tout fet pou nou jete potre dje Blan yo ki swaf dlo lan zye.Koute vwa la libète kap chante lan kè nou.
Haiti is the only case in recorded history where a formerly enslaved people rose up against their oppressors and militarily defeated them to then form an independent nation in 1804.While Haiti is the second independent country in the Americas after the United States which became independent in 1776, it is the first free country in the Americas as the US was a slave owning nation. Haiti is the first independent country in Latin America.Haiti is NOT the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti has been the victim of an international conspiracy of the white slave owning nations of the world to malign and impoverish it ever since it fought a successful war which abolished slavery in 1804 and declared Haiti a haven for all enslaved peoples. Since these countries still “rule” the world today, their propaganda against Haiti marches on.
The father of our independence is Jean Jacques Dessalines, not Toussaint L’Ouverture as is commonly taught in most mainstream histories of Haiti. Our military victory against the armies of Spain, England, and France is a source of pride for all Haitians and lovers of justice everywhere. The successful freedom struggle in Haiti has been an inspiration for enslaved Africans all over the Americas as well as all over the world.Haiti helped many countries around the world win their independence These included the countries liberated by Simon Bolivar (Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, parts of present day Peru, Guyana, and Brazil); and Cuba. Haiti was the first country to name a major thoroughfare of our capital, Port-au-Prince, in honor of the fallen Caucasian revolutionary John Brown who had taken up arms against slavery in the United States in the 1850’s.The Citadelle Laferriere, built in 1820 (1805-1820) by Haitians less than 20 years after they broke the chains of slavery, remains up to today the largest military fort in the Americas.
Despite continued assault by hostile powers claiming to be our friends and greedy multinationals, local organic agriculture remains the backbone of the Haitian economy and the source of what remains of our independence.
Haiti’s case Against Bill & Hillary Clinton & Their Degenerate Crack Head Martelly While Bill & Hillary Clinton have been sold to the world as friends of Haiti because they accidentally spent their honeymoon there, the record, as you will see, is completely different.In 2008 the UN named Bill Clinton UN Special Envoy to Haiti with the job of “mobilizing international support for Haiti’s economic recovery and reconstruction”. In fact his actual job was to camouflage the bloody, cholera plagued US-UN occupation in Haiti (since 2004) and to divert attention away from UN killings and rapes in Haiti.At this time, his wife Hillary was the Secretary of State of the US and together they collaborated to achieve a common goal of the US, the UN, and the other so called friends of Haiti. They wanted to implement what is known as the Collier Development Plan which is merely another anti-humanity ploy to wrest whatever little sovereignty remains to Haitians by taking productive land away from the peasants to build low “slave” wage factory jobs and tourist resorts. to build low “slave” wage factory jobs and tourist resorts.When the tragedy of the earthquake hit in January 2010, they used this as a perfect occasion to further their macabre plan. Since the “rulers of the world” push the lie that non-white leaders are irresponsible and corrupt, our “friends” determined that the Haiti earthquake relief money would be too much for Haitians to manage. Once again our dear benefactor and savior Bill Clinton was named the head of this relief fund. Of the $13 Billion that was pledged, we are told that about $6 Billion was actually received. Less than 1% of this amount made it to the Haitian Government. Bill Clinton had total control of the balance.
Bill Clinton in front of one of his 6 billion dollar “Haiti” houses to cover up Bill’s recovery fund corruption and Hillary’s USAID corruption, they dredged up the degenerate, self-avowed crack head Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly that they forced down our throats as President of Haiti. Hillary actually traveled to Haiti during the election threatening to cut off US aid and to cancel US visas of Haitian officials and their families if Martelly had been eliminated in the first round of the elections. It would only be such a character who would help them with their cover up while lining his own pockets and that of his cronies. The degenerate Martelly doing the only thing he really knows how to doMartelly’s illegitimate administration (2011 to 2016; he got ~ 700,000 votes in a country of 11 million) was plagued with political assassinations, arrests of opponents and detentions without trial; gassing of peaceful demonstrations; widespread and unprecedented corruption. Since July 2018, the Haitian people all over the country are up in arms to remove Martelly’s handpicked successor – Jovenel Moise – who with his cronies continue to plunder and rob Haiti all the while doing the bidding of Haiti’s enemies and their international bosses so as to destroy the country.
