Will Mercer Cook, popularly known as Mercer Cook, was an American diplomat and professor.
20 Facts About Mercer Cook
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Mercer Cook was the first United States ambassador to the Gambia after it became independent, appointed in 1965 while still serving as ambassador to Senegal.
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Will Mercer Cook was born on March 30,1903, in Washington DC, to Will Marion Cook, a famous composer of musical theatre, and Abbie Mitchell Cook, a soprano singer.
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In Washington, DC, the Mercer Cook family lived across the street from the legendary jazz musician Duke Ellington.
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Mercer Cook attended Dunbar High School in Washington DC, a predominantly black academic school.
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Mercer Cook graduated from Amherst College with a bachelor's degree in 1925 and went to Paris for further study.
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Mercer Cook received his teacher's diploma from the University of Paris in 1926.
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Mercer Cook earned a master's degree in French from Brown University in 1931 and a doctorate in 1936.
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Mercer Cook returned to Paris in 1934, on a fellowship from the General Education Board.
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From 1943 to 1945, Mercer Cook worked as a professor of English at the University of Haiti.
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Mercer Cook wrote the literary criticism titled Five French Negro Authors and edited an anthology of Haitian readings.
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Mercer Cook became active in international relations in the late 1950s.
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Mercer Cook's wife was involved in many social programs, including a project to distribute medical supplies across the country and participation in women's groups.
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In 1963, Mercer Cook was designated as an alternate delegate to the General Assembly of the United Nations.
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Mercer Cook served as the United States Ambassador to Niger until 1964 when he was selected to be the US Ambassador to the Republic of Senegal.
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In 1966, Mercer Cook returned to Howard University to become head of the department of romance languages.
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Mercer Cook worked as a visiting professor at Harvard University in 1969.
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In 1969, Mercer Cook published The Militant Black Writer in Africa and the United States, co-authored with Stephen Henderson of Morehouse College.
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Mercer Cook continued to write and publish professionally in the 1970s.
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Mercer Cook died of pneumonia in Washington, DC, on October 4,1987.