W. E. B. DuBois Award Recipient - 1999

Dr. Samuel DuBois Cook, President Emeritus of Dillard University, has an outstanding record as a political scientist, scholar, educator, teacher, administrator, and civil rights activist. In addition to teaching, he has lectured extensively at colleges and universities throughout the United States and abroad. He has also presented major papers before leading professional groups and published articles in scholarly journals and chapters in books. Even as the busy President of Dillard, Dr. Cook continued to participate in the world of scholarship through publications and lectureships.

Dr. Cook received the A.B. degree from Morehouse College, and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Ohio State University. He was the distinguished President of Dillard University from January 1, 1975, until his retirement on June 30, 1997. Dr. Cook has taught at Southern University, Atlanta University, the University of Illinois, and University of California at Los Angeles. He was not only the first black professor at Duke University, but has the distinction of being the first black to hold a regular faculty appointment at any predominantly white college or university in the entire South.

Dr. Cook has served as a Program Officer in Higher Education and Research at the Ford Foundation. The first black President of the Southern Political Science Association, Dr. Cook has served as Vice President of the American Political Science Association and as a member of that body’s Executive Council. He has served and continues to serve on a long list of boards, committees, and commissions. He is a member of the Board of Trustees Emeritus of Duke University, a member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Library Resources, a member of the Board of Advisors of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the National Association of Schools and Colleges of the United Methodist Church. The list goes on and on.

President Carter appointed Dr. Cook to the prestigious National Council on the Humanities. President Clinton appointed Dr. Cook to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Dr. Cook was appointed to positions of public service by the Governors of North Carolina and Louisiana.

Dr. Cook is a former member of the University Senate of the United Methodist Church and former Chairman of its Commission on Institutional Review. Former Chairman of the Council of Higher Education of the United Church of Christ, he was Chairman of the Council of Presidents of the Methodist-Related Black Colleges, past Chairman of the Presidents and the past Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Member Institutions of the United Negro College Fund, Inc. (UNCF), former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Inc., a former member of the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education, and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Louisiana State Museum.

Primarily because of the vision and commitment of Dr. Cook, Dillard University has the only National Center for Black-Jewish Relations in the world. It also has the only Japanese Studies Program in the South Central United States and the only one at a historically Black college or university.

Dr. Cook has received numerous honors and awards. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he holds honorary degrees from Morehouse College, Ohio State University, Illinois College, Duke University, Chicago Theological Seminary, and the University of New Orleans.