{{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 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. 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 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 |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 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.<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 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 conspiracy theorists Category:American futurologists Category:Activists from Chicago