Vivian E.J. Cook: Principal Activist

Vivian E.J. Cook was an educator and activist. She was born in Collierville, Tennessee, in 1889. Her parents were both born into slavery. Cook’s mother Caroline became the first Black school teacher in Fayette County, Tennessee, and she ensured that her children received educations. Cook graduated from Howard University in 1912. After graduating from Howard, she taught at the Tuskegee Institute, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in St. Louis, Missouri, at Sumner High School. She graduated from Columbia University in 1917 with a master’s degree. In 1918, she married and moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she
worked in the school district as a teacher, vice principal, and principal of several schools in the city. She was the first Black woman to hold an administrative position at a secondary school in Baltimore. Cook was active in several social and advocacy groups, including the National Association of College Women. In 1938, she served on the African American subcommittee of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Committee of the City. While serving on that committee, Cook suggested that there be an educational portion to the 1939 exhibition “Contemporary Negro Art.” She also collaborated on other projects highlighting African American art for the Baltimore Museum of Art, and helped acquire several paintings for the museum. Vivian Cook died in 1977.

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Black Women by Becca Anderson and MJ Fievre, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Karen Arrington: More than Just a Pretty Face

https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/karen-arrington-interview-black-women-empowerment-trip

Karen Arrington is the founder of the Miss Black USA Pageant. More than a pageant, it’s a movement—celebrating the talents and achievements of today’s Black women and awarding over $450,000 in college scholarships each year. Since founding the pageant in 1986, Arrington has mentored over a thousand young women, helping them get into top medical schools, land major modeling and recording contracts, secure life-changing grants and sponsorship deals, and more. In addition to running the pageant, Arrington is a philanthropist and humanitarian whose work has touched millions of lives. She’s the cofounder of Diabetes Awareness Day in West Africa and was named a goodwill ambassador to the Gambia and to the Republic of Sierra Leone. She has received numerous awards, including leadership awards from the Lifetime Network and Jones New York, the Trailblazer’s Award by Zeta Phi Sorority (the highest award that is bestowed by this sorority, which has over 21,000 members), and Maryland Black Mayors Honors for commitment and dedication to the community, and she was a Woman’s Day magazine Red Dress Honoree along with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta and Olympic gold medalist Dana Vollmer. Arrington has been interviewed in places like the Washington Post, Woman’s Day, Jet, and on BET.

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Black Women by Becca Anderson and MJ Fievre, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.