International Religious Freedom and Black Women Entrepreneurship with Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook

Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook comes from a family of Black political leaders, traditional and nontraditional. Her brother was the first Black assemblyman in the Bronx, her family owns a security agency, which is the longest-running Black-owned family business in the Bronx, and she is the woman of many firsts. She is the first female and African American to serve as the U.S. Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, first African American woman to be a senior pastor in the U.S Baptist Church in their 200-year history, first female chaplain for NYC police department, Founder and CEO of the Global Black Women’s Chamber of Commerce, former advisor to President Clinton and President Obama, and an Honorary Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. on the 2013 Centennial Line. She stresses, however, that it was the relationships she built in her mother’s living room during her childhood that sent her on her political career.
Dr. Dorothy I. Height is the first fourth president of the National Council of Negro Women, and Ambassador Johnson Cook was able to be in her presence several times. Coretta Scott King, the godmother of Civil Rights, also adopted her as her second daughter as she was college friends with her daughter Yolanda. Dr. Johnetta Cole, the only woman to serve as president of two historically black colleges for women, Spelman College and Bennett College, and an anthropologist and activist who served breakfast for the Black Panther Party and Audre Lorde mentee, wrote her a strong recommendation. She was able to meet the first woman president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was close friends with Hillary Clinton in Liberia and America. She was older when she was elected into office and was embraced by the people, paving the way for Black women leaders in the continent and within her country.
She also faced some obstacles. Although she was nominated by the president due to the delegations she led to countries, 199 countries under her portfolio, and service as a chaplain, it took a year-and-a-half of Senate committee meetings in order to be appointed. She had faith. She said, “I have never been afraid to identify as a woman of faith. In fact, if you look at most of the Black women leaders who whether they’re Congresswomen, Senators, or leaders in the civil rights movement, faith is what really strengthened and undergirded them”. She had to navigate being well known as a Baptist pastor in that space and enter the International Religious Freedom space dominated by the Evangelical conservative right.
To get this interview, I made a flier for an upcoming July 6th fundraising event for the Global Black Women’s Chamber of Commerce, the only chamber that focuses only on Black women business owners, which she founded in March 2020. Ambassador Johnson Cook calls herself a legacy-builder. Her family’s business empowers their Black community by providing jobs and served as an inspiring example of generational wealth in the Bronx. She now supports Black women, who are the largest growing entrepreneurs and employers as their business. She currently is invited to speak to students, White House officials, etc through her company Charisma Speakers. I believe she is a legacy-builder and a woman of many firsts, trailblazing in the faith-based space and paving the way for Black women leaders with charisma and humility.