Walter L. Cohen

Who was Walter L. Cohen?

Walter L. Cohen, Sr. was an African-American Republican politician and businessman in the U.S. state of Louisiana.

The New Orleans native was the son of Bernard Cohen and the former Amelia Bingaman. Like his better-known compatriot Homer Adolph Plessy, Cohen was a free black prior to passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He was also a Kohen. He noted that he was part of the most-hated ethnic group and most-hated religious group by the resurging Ku Klux Klan.

Educated in New Orleans, he was married to the former Antonia Manadé, and the couple had three children: Walter Cohen, Jr., Bernard J. Cohen, and Margot C. Farrell.