photo of Suffolk County CORE chairman Calvin Cobb
Dublin Core
Title
photo of Suffolk County CORE chairman Calvin Cobb
Subject
Suffolk County CORE members
Description
This is a photo of Calvin Cobb, one of the founders of Suffolk County CORE and its first chairman. According to his obituary, his family were sharecroppers from South Carolina. A World War II veteran of the Air Force, he graduated from the City College of New York/CUNY and Brooklyn Law School and became an attorney.
In 1965, he was arrested for stealing money from a cousin and suspected in the loss of $275,00 of church funds during an office fire.
Even though his cousin's charges were later dropped, Cobb was indicted on a charge of 1st degree grand larceny in regards to the church funds. This was despite the fact, at the suggestion of the district attorney, he had deeded over his house to the church to cover the cost of loss. Cobb was renting the house from the church so could continue to live there. Suffolk CORE claimed he was being pursued because of his civil rights activity. He and his wife were indicted for taking out a loan on the house because he technically did not own it anymore. He was found guilty in October, 1966 and given 1 - 3 years. Sentence was suspended but he was still disbarred. He could not even afford a lawyer for his trial. He was 41 at the time.
He moved to Tanzania where he lived for several years before coming back to the country and working as a computer science instructor at Hampton University.
Besides being a member of the NAACP, his obituary also stated he was a member of Malcolm X's Organization of Afro-American University.
In 1965, he was arrested for stealing money from a cousin and suspected in the loss of $275,00 of church funds during an office fire.
Even though his cousin's charges were later dropped, Cobb was indicted on a charge of 1st degree grand larceny in regards to the church funds. This was despite the fact, at the suggestion of the district attorney, he had deeded over his house to the church to cover the cost of loss. Cobb was renting the house from the church so could continue to live there. Suffolk CORE claimed he was being pursued because of his civil rights activity. He and his wife were indicted for taking out a loan on the house because he technically did not own it anymore. He was found guilty in October, 1966 and given 1 - 3 years. Sentence was suspended but he was still disbarred. He could not even afford a lawyer for his trial. He was 41 at the time.
He moved to Tanzania where he lived for several years before coming back to the country and working as a computer science instructor at Hampton University.
Besides being a member of the NAACP, his obituary also stated he was a member of Malcolm X's Organization of Afro-American University.
Source
Newsday
Publisher
Newsday
Date
June 23, 1965
Citation
“photo of Suffolk County CORE chairman Calvin Cobb,” corenyc.org, accessed April 24, 2024, http://www.corenyc.org/omeka/items/show/292.