Wash Heights Street To Be Co-Named For Black Nationalist Leader

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A street in Washington Heights is getting co-named in a ceremony on Friday to honor the life and legacy of Carlos Cooks. Cooks, born in the Dominican Republic in 1913, was a leader in the fight for Black empowerment and a key figure in the Black nationalist movements of the 20th Century.

The northeast corner of West 166th Street and Broadway will be co-named Carlos Cooks Way in a ceremony organized by Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez.

It is not the first time that West 166th Street is the site for a co-naming location. Rodriguez also oversaw a ceremony in October of 2020 to add the sign Dr. Nasry Michelen Way on West 166th and Audubon — in honor of the renowned Dominican doctor.

After receiving an education in Santo Domingo, Cooks moved to New York in 1929. He quickly was introduced to Marcus Garvey's Black Nationalist fraternal organization, and by the age of 19 had become an important member of the movement.

Cooks would go on to lead the Advance Division of the UNIA after Marcus Garvey was deported. In 1941, he launched the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement with the goal of making "an educational, inspirational, instructive, constructive and expansive society...composed of people desirous of bringing about a progressive, dignified, cultural, fraternal and racial confraternity among the African peoples of the world."

Cooks coined the phrase "Buy Black" many years before it became popularized, according to a news release from Rodriguez's office.

He died in Harlem on May 5, 1966.

You can find out more about Cooks here.

The street co-naming ceremony will take place Friday at noon on the northeast corner of West 166th Street and Broadway.