City Son: Andrew W. Cooper's Impact on Modern-Day Brooklyn(Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies)

In 1966, a year after the Voting Rights Act began liberating millions of southern blacks, New Yorkers challenged a political system that weakened their voting power. Andrew W. Cooper (1927-2002), a beer company employee, sued state officials in a case called Cooper vs. Power. In 1968, the courts agreed that black citizens were denied the right to elect an authentic representative of their community. The 12th Congressional District was redrawn. Shirley Chisholm, a member of Cooper's political club, ran for the new seat and made history as the first black woman elected to Congress.Cooper became a journalist, a political columnist, then founder of Trans Urban News Service and the City Sun, a feisty Brooklyn-based weekly that published from 1984 to 1996. Whether the stories were about Mayor Koch or Rev. Al Sharpton, Howard Beach or Crown Heights, Tawana Brawley's dubious rape allegations, the Daily News Four trial, or Spike Lee's filmmaking career, Cooper's City Sun commanded attention and moved officials and readers to action.

Cooper's leadership also gave Brooklyn--particularly predominantly black central Brooklyn--an identity. It is no accident that in the twenty-first century the borough crackles with energy. Cooper fought tirelessly for the community's vitality when it was virtually abandoned by the civic and business establishments in the mid-to-late twentieth century. In addition, scores of journalists trained by Cooper are keeping his spirit alive.

About the Author :
Wayne Dawkins is assistant professor of journalism at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. A former newspaper reporter and editor, he is the author of Rugged Waters: Black Journalists Swim the Mainstream and Black Journalists: The National Association of Black Journalists Story, as well as a contributor to Black Voices in Commentary: The Trotter Group and My First Year as a Journalist.

Review :
In City Son author Wayne Dawkins showcases fresh voices within the black Brooklyn community who helped deliver the 1965 mayoral election to John V. Lindsay.--Milton Mollen, Lindsay associate, retired judge, and leader of the 1992-94 Mollen Commission investigation of police corruption There's an old saying that behind every great man, you'll find a great woman. The reverse might be said in the case of Shirley Chisholm, who served in the US House of Representatives for the 12th District of New York and who was the first African American woman to be elected to that body. Chisholm's distinguished career and dedication to her community are well known, but how many today realize that it was a successful lawsuit brought by Brooklyn voting rights activist Andrew W. Cooper that ultimately opened the doors for Chisholm to make her move?

Wayne Dawkins devoted seven years to crafting a biography of Cooper, a former beer company employee whom he has called mentor. Dawkins documents the explosive times that helped forge a shift in the political landscape that reached well beyond the borders of Brooklyn, New York.-- "Dailypress.com"