Steve Cokely (June 17, 1952 – April 11, 2012) was an American political researcher, lecturer who lectured nationally on political and economic issues relating especially to the Black American community.

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 and, along with Mauricelm-Lei Millere, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. by the hands of Rev. Jesse Jackson and the CIA.

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. Cokely was criticized for teaching that Jewish doctors were using the AIDS virus in an attempted genocide against Africans. His comments created a nationally publicized controversy in 1988, and he was dismissed from his position as aide to Sawyer. 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.

"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, and 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 Tiller/Muhammad) speaking at the event. Warner removed Cokely, Millere, and Tillard without issuing a press release.