(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Walter L. Cohen: A Black political leader in New Orleans [1] ['Tammy C. Barney', 'More Tammy C. Barney', 'Verite News', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-06-24 Walter Louis Cohen knew where he stood with the Ku Klux Klan. “My father was a Jew, my mother Negro, and I a Catholic,” he said, according to the Creole Genealogical and Historical Association. “I am everything the Ku Klux Klan abominates.” A free man of color, Cohen was born in New Orleans on Jan. 22, 1860. His education at St. Louis Catholic School and Straight Business College led him to become a successful businessman as the founder of People’s Life Insurance Company. W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center, UMass Amherst Libraries. As leader of the Louisiana Republican Party from 1892-1930, Cohen also was a successful politician. His “political activity mushroomed in the 1890s – after the Reconstruction era – when he became one of the few Black people to hold appointed office into the 20th century,” states the African American High Schools in Louisiana Before 1970 website. President William McKinley appointed Cohen as a customs inspector. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him as registrar of the U.S. Land Office. President Warren G. Harding appointed him as comptroller for the U.S. Customs Service. When Calvin Coolidge became president, he renewed Cohen’s comptroller appointment. Cohen could have become the minister to Liberia, but he declined Coolidge’s offer, according to the New Orleans Tribune. “Though he had been a delegate to all Republican national conventions between 1896 and 1924, Cohen was later ousted as secretary of the now 144-member Louisiana State Republican Central Committee,” the New Orleans Tribune stated in 2017. Outside of politics, Cohen was a member of Corpus Christi Catholic Church as well as benevolent and fraternal organizations. He died at 69 in New Orleans on Dec. 29, 1930. He is buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 3. Despite resistance from white residents, Walter L. Cohen High School opened in uptown New Orleans in 1949. It was the city’s fifth public high school for Black students. For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/06/24/bitd-walter-l-cohen-peoples-life-insurance/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/