Biography
Mark Cook was the only African-American member of the George Jackson Brigade and the last to join the Pacific Northwest militant prisoner-solidarity formation. He participated in the January 23, 1976 Tukwila bank robbery that killed Brigade member Bruce Seidel and led to the arrest of Ed Mead and John Sherman; he avoided arrest at the scene. Days later, he carried out the armed liberation of John Sherman from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where Sherman was being held under guard for medical treatment of her bank-robbery wounds; a King County deputy was wounded in the operation. Cook was arrested shortly afterward and convicted in Washington state court. He served 24 years in the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla — the longest of any of the Brigades members.
Inside, he organized a chapter of the Black Panther Party at Walla Walla, founded the PIVOT post-release re-entry program, and organized the long-running CONvention prison-organizing seminar. He was released in 2000.
