The Disappearing of Sister Koko with Prof. D. Boose - Black Rebellion

12/14/22 • 35 min

As the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., sparked rebellions across the US, Sister Koko describes her experience of the uprising in DC and how King’s death personally affected her.

She explains the underlying entrenched and long-standing systems of racial oppression, especially poverty, that fueled the outpouring of violence and destruction in April of 1968. She takes us through the streets of DC overrun with troops and the fractured infrastructure that attempted to quell the rebellion. Throughout it all, Sister Koko persisted in her community organizing and her work with Stokely Carmichael in SNCC. But the federal government saw her activism as a threat, a radical for the FBI to keeps tabs on, which led to a suspicious infiltrator and a raid on Sister Koko’s apartment that uncovered a closet of firearms.

This episode includes brief profanity and offensive historical language. Listener discretion is advised. Any views expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of HumanitiesDC or the project’s funders.

As the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., sparked rebellions across the US, Sister Koko describes her experience of the uprising in DC and how King’s death personally affected her.

Previous Episode

The Disappearing of Sister Koko with Prof. D. Boose - Becoming A Black Power Activist

What was happening in the rest of the world as Dorothy Jean McQueen reinvented herself as Sister Koko, and how did it affect her? Prof. D. Boose explores how entwined rising anxieties over the spread of nuclear weapons, poverty, and the Vietnam war, were with the ever-increasing Black Freedom activism in the mid-1960s.

Listen as Sister Koko explains how these international and national events had an impact on her and local Washington, DC, communities. In this episode, Sister Koko turns her attention from Howard University to centering her work with the United Planning Organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and Stokely Carmichael. She focused on combating poverty, protesting US involvement in Vietnam, organizing voter registration on a grassroots level, and promoting the idea of Black Power. Yet change remained slow, and Black Freedom fighters increasingly turned to militant action to defend themselves against white supremacy and to make their demands heard.

Next Episode

The Disappearing of Sister Koko with Prof. D. Boose - Freedom Ain't Free

What becomes of a life of Black freedom activism? In this final episode of the series, Sister Koko recounts the resolution of the firearm charges against her, details ongoing FBI surveillance, and explains her trajectory from SNCC and the Black Panther Party to Pan African and anti-Apartheid activism. Along the way, she supports the Wilmington 10, builds a friendship with Miriam Makeba, becomes a United Nations delegate, and even meets a young Tupac Shakur. But as Sister Koko thinks back on her incredible life, she ponders the roads not traveled, too. Living in near obscurity now, Sister Koko grapples with assessing her life in the struggle.