Joy Keys chats with Filmmaker Gregory S. Cooke about Black women in WWII

Gregory S. Cooke is a career educator, documentary filmmaker, and World War II historian, dedicated to helping "relocate African Americans from the margins to the main pages of American and global history.” He is the Founder and President of the Basil and Becky Educational Foundation, a recipient of the Congressional Black Caucus, Veterans Braintrust Award (2019).

Gregory is the creator of Invisible Warriors: African American Women in World War II, a critically acclaimed feature-length documentary that explores the wartime experiences of 600,000 “Rosie the Riveters”- “hidden figures” - pioneers who courageously triumph over racism and sexism to create job opportunities in industry and government for themselves and future generations of African American women. Invisible Warriors is an inaugural recipient of the Better Angels/Lavine/Ken Burns Fellowship (2020), and also received the Congressional Black Caucus, Veterans Braintrust Award (2019).

Gregory is also the driving force behind the historical documentary, Choc’late Soldiers from the USA (CSUSA), the untold story of 140,000 African American men and women who cross a racial divide and form an unexpected bond with British civilians during World War II.