Uploaded August 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Marvel Cooke (1903-2000) was an American journalist, writer, and civil rights activist. In 1928, she was the first woman reporter at the New York Amsterdam News and the first African-American woman to work at a mainstream white-owned newspaper. While working for Amsterdam News in the 1930s, Cooke helped create a local chapter of the Newspaper Guild, held union meetings in her home, and joined the Communist Party. She later went on to volunteer as national legal defense secretary for the Angela Davis Defense Fund in 1971.
Credit to: Tamiment Library
Marvel Cooke (1903-2000) was an American journalist, writer, and civil rights activist. In 1928, she was the first woman reporter at the New York Amsterdam News and the first African-American woman to work at a mainstream white-owned newspaper. While working for Amsterdam News in the 1930s, Cooke helped create a local chapter of the Newspaper Guild, held union meetings in her home, and joined the Communist Party. She later went on to volunteer as national legal defense secretary for the Angela Davis Defense Fund in 1971.
Credit to: Tamiment Library
