Marvel Jackson Cooke (April 4, 1903 – November 29, 2000) was a pioneering American journalist, writer, and civil rights activist.

[3][4][2] Amy Wood Jackson left her position on the reservation in South Dakota due to witnessing too much unfair treatment of the Native Americans there.

[2] Her score qualified her for hire, but her boss gave her a job as a file clerk after lying and telling her the translation department was not yet established.

[2] Mentored by Du Bois, she became friendly with leading writers and artists, including Paul Robeson, Countee Cullen, Elizabeth Catlett, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, and James Weldon Johnson.

[6][2] In 1929, she married Jamaican-born Cecil Cooke[4] – a graduate of Columbia University, who was the world's fastest quarter-miler[6] when she met him; their marriage would last until his death in 1978.

[2] In 1950 she was hired by the New York paper The Daily Compass, becoming the first African-American woman to serve as a reporter for a mainstream white-owned newspaper; at the time she was one of only two black journalists employed there, along with Richard Carter.

[7] Her first series for the paper, beginning April 16, was "Occupation: Streetwalker" which chronicled the process of prostitution in the area; she also published a piece that detailed black children's drug use entitled "From Candy to Heroin.

[2] She also formed a writing group to support creative authors; one of the participants was the first black writer to publish a Book-of-the-Month-Club selection, Richard Wright.

The National Council brought together artists, scientists, and professionals for political unity; Arthur Miller and John Randolph were members.

[2] In 1953, when she was called twice to testify regarding her involvement with the Communist Party before Senator Joseph McCarthy, in New York and Washington DC, she pleaded the Fifth Amendment.

[2] She coordinated committee activities in New York, raised money for Angela Davis's defense, and organized a rally at Madison Square Gardens.

Cooke died of leukemia in New York in 2000, at the age of 97, having lived most of her life at 409 Edgecombe Avenue, the legendary apartment building in Sugar Hill, that was home to many other black luminaries.