Restoring the Legacy of Cook Park - A Place for History and Change
Lisa Dotson, Athens, Tennessee
In my hometown of Athens, Tennessee, “The Friendly City,” a shift is happening. One that mirrors a national change in awareness. In this town, with a population less than 14,000, people are waking up to the issue of racial injustice.
On June 11, 2020, hundreds of people gathered in J.L. Cook Memorial Park in Athens to listen, march, and participate in a peaceful protest, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota the preceding month.
As powerful as the voices is the place where they converged - “Cook Park.” It is what remains of what once was a prominent Black school in the South. Like many other sites across America, the legacy of such stature has faded from community consciousness by fire or forgottenness. Until recently, that is. With the park as a backdrop, residents of Athens are building an inclusive future for their community inspired by a legacy of Black history and progress.
Photos by Alan Armstrong
At the center of the legacy stands Jacob Lawrence Cook, “Jake,” who dedicated his career to educating Black men and women in his hometown of Athens. Born to two former slaves in 1870 and orphaned by eight years old, Cook’s adopted parents and the Athens community nurtured his education. He went on to earn several degrees, including a license in ministry from a school of theology in Pittsburg.
He returned to Athens in 1890 and founded the First United Presbyterian Church on North Jackson Street two years later. The red brick building still stands in downtown Athens and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
With support from the church, Cook founded a three-room schoolhouse called “Athens Academy.” The size of the school was remarkable. Most other Black schools had only a single room in which to teach and learn. After Cook died in the early 1900s, a fire demolished the Academy, but it was eventually rebuilt as the J.L. Cook School in his honor. The school increased in size, reputation, and quality. By the 1950s it was recognized throughout the South as a premier Black school.
Photo by Tom Bosse
When the desegregation movement began in the 1960s, local education officials no longer felt the need for an all Black school in McMinn County, so the school closed permanently in 1966, taking a piece of Athens heritage with it.
J.L. Cook School, which was a visible symbol of progress and unity for the Black community in Athens, is now a fairly empty park. A place where White people never go, and Black people stopped visiting because of its perception as a locale for illegal activity.
That is, until June 11, 2020, when hundreds of us gathered for the Conversation on Race and Community.
People of all backgrounds in Athens- Black and White, police officers and community members- marched to the old grounds of Cook School and embraced unity. The under-utilized park came alive with humanity - frustration for the past and idealism for the future. The park became a foundation for hope, positive change, and, once again, community learning.
Photo by Alan Armstrong
Since June 11, a group of citizens in Athens have become “Community Connectors,” meeting regularly and volunteering their time to keep this positive momentum going. The group includes my husband and me, fellow business owners, educators, and nonprofit leaders. We are building trust amongst each other and our community, and seek to
Set an example of how to accomplish change without violence,
Strengthen African American participation in various roles of local government,
Develop an effective voting registration campaign,
Encourage civic engagement,
Research and understand the evolving Black Lives Matter movement,
Communicate openly with our fellow residents and neighbors, and
Mentor the future generations of Athens.
As for Cook Park? As the setting that kicked off this momentum, it has rekindled in our hearts that spirit of unity in the Friendly City. The Community Connectors dream of rebuilding the park into an arts and multicultural center. A place that will feature creatives, classes, and events. A cultural hub where people can find answers to hard questions, dive into resources and history, and build solutions to systemic challenges.
The heritage of the park in the Athens community has surged back into the community consciousness. As someone who dedicated his life to education and progress for Black men and women in Athens, I think Jake Cook would be proud to have seen the turnout on June 11. He’d encourage us to keep learning, to keep talking, to keep setting the table for all people in our community to acknowledge hard truths and build solutions together.
Athens is “The Friendly City,” and we’re going to live up to that. We’re building an Athens where friendliness includes equality and justice for all.
Historical context for this article sourced from Joe Guys’s “Hidden History: The Church and School that Jake Cook Built.”