Episode 394: COOLEY HIGH (1975)

With COOLEY HIGH, screenwriter Eric Monte and director Michael Schultz put the experiences that defined their youth on the screen. Preach (Glynn Turman) and Cochise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) are fast friends and comrades in Chicago’s notorious Cabrini-Green housing projects. Like Monte and Schultz, they spend their days rabble-rousing, chasing girls, losing friends to senseless violence, and the unfairness and inequality that defined the African-American experience in the 1960s.

Beyond its box office success, COOLEY HIGH inspired a generation of artists to share stories that balanced compelling drama with the real issues facing black Americans for decades to come.

Give to these causes in need during ICE’s occupation of Minnesota:

https://mn50501.org/donate

Support Minnesotans defending their communities from ICE: https://www.standwithminnesota.com/

@sanctuarysupplydepot: Mutual aid group in Mpls getting basic necessities to our houseless neighbors https://linktr.ee/sanctuarysupplydepot

@mplsmutualaid: Clearinghouse of mutual aid for our neighbors: https://linktr.ee/mplsmutualaid

ISAIAH, an interfaith group fighting for racial and economic justice in MN: https://secure.everyaction.com/G8TCnxFlE0qd9zlUEYjjeg2

Show love to North Minneapolis families in crisis: https://www.gofundme.com/f/show-love-to-north-minneapolis-families-in-crisis

References:

“Cooley High Harmonies” by Matthew Tchepikova-Treon for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2026/07/26/cooley-high-harmonies/

“‘Cooley High’: Surprises on Set” (The Oscars): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjzihAntUVY