Elijah Cook
Elijah Cook was a community leader, organizer of schools, and legislator from Montgomery, Alabama. A formerly enslaved person, he helped establish Montgomery's first school for African Americans in 1865 after the American Civil War. Chose the site for Swayne College in 1868. He also helped bring Lincoln Normal School, predecessor of Alabama State University, to Montgomery from Marion, Alabama. The New York Public Library has a photograph of his home, business, Cook, and his wife from a book published by Chicago publisher Hertel, Jenkins & Co.
