[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 138 (Friday, September 6, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E862-E863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING SHIRLEY COOKS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 6, 2024

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to my first 
Congressional Chief of Staff, an early activist in the Civil Rights 
Movement, a life-long public servant, and my friend, Shirley Cooks, who 
passed on January 19, 2024. A celebration of life will be held for 
Shirley on Capitol Hill on September 12 with her family, friends and 
former co-workers gathering to honor a woman of substance, skill and 
humor who they considered a mentor and hero. Shirley ran my D.C. office 
with outstanding skill and loyalty, helping me, a first-term 
congressman, navigate a world she had known and managed relationships 
in for years. Her sage advice, deep knowledge, and constant grace were 
invaluable to me. A dedicated public servant all her life, Shirley was 
an ardent advocate of civil rights and had the achievements and life 
history to advance them. Shirley was born on August 27, 1944, to 
Melvine and William Wright in New York City. Her early education was 
divided between New York and Aboukir, St. Ann, Jamaica. Shirley 
graduated from St. Paul's School in Los Angeles in 1958. She became 
acquainted with leaders and staff members of both the Student 
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Southern Christian 
Leadership Conference (SCLC) when she moved from Los Angeles to New 
York to live with her brother and sister-in-law, entertainer and 
political activist Harry and his wife Julie Belafonte, and

[[Page E863]]

their children. She studied at Bank Street College, a groundbreaking 
school advancing early childhood education; the New School for Social 
Research; and New York University during that time. By the mid-1960s, 
Shirley had moved to Atlanta to work full-time in the Civil Rights 
Movement as a member of the SNCC administrative staff with additional 
work on Voter Registration field projects in Alabama and Mississippi. 
Her work included liaison outreach with SCLC, where she met her future 
husband, Stoney Cooks. They were married in September 1970 and settled 
in Atlanta the following year. Shirley gave birth to her first child in 
1972, the year Andrew Young was elected to Congress, becoming the first 
African American representative from the Deep South since 
Reconstruction. Shirley worked in the principal's office at Peabody 
Elementary School on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. in 1974 and gave 
birth to her second son in 1976. In 1977, when Andrew Young was 
appointed U.N. Ambassador by President Jimmy Carter, Shirley and Stoney 
and their two children moved to New York City where she worked at the 
African American Institute (AAI). In 1981, Shirley gave birth to her 
third son and the couple returned to Atlanta with their three children 
where she served in the position of Director, Bureau of Cultural 
Affairs, in the Parks and Recreation Department for the City of 
Atlanta. Continuing her work in public service, Shirley returned to 
work as Legislative Affairs Director at AAI in Washington, then served 
as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs at the 
U.S. Department of State under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. 
She later worked as Chief of Staff for U.S. House Representatives 
members Juanita Millender-McDonald of California, Laura Richardson of 
California, and for me, before retiring. Shirley will be remembered as 
a devoted public servant with a wonderful sense of humor, a serious 
commitment to justice and good causes, her loyalty and her kindness. I 
extend my sincere condolences to her sons Caleb, Judah, and Micah; her 
grandchildren, Stoney Nakoda and Wiyot Adeline; and her many loyal 
friends and extended family members. May they take comfort in the life 
she lived. Shirley Cooks made a difference in our world and will 
continue to be greatly missed.

                          ____________________