Eddie Cochran, a successful African-American business owner who was shot to death during a robbery in 1995, was known for trying to make a difference in the struggle for civil rights.
Cochran, a native of Greenwood, was the owner of the Hotel Plaza, which was at the intersection of Main Street and Martin Luther King Drive. He also was vice president of the Greenwood Voters League.
“He was one of my best friends,” said David Jordan, president of the league.
“I wanted him to serve as president because he knew about Robert’s Rules of Order, because he was a businessman,” Jordan said. “He said, ‘No, Dave, you serve as president.’”
The 25-room Hotel Plaza, which burned in September 1976, was the only African-American-owned hotel in the Delta, Jordan said.
In the 1950s and 1960s, it often hosted African-American musicians such as Ruth Brown, B.B. King, Tina Turner, Roy Brown, Percy Mayfield, T-Bone Walker and Bobby “Blue” Bland, who regularly came through Greenwood as part of the “Chitlin’ Circuit.”
Another guest was the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who visited Greenwood shortly before he was assassinated.
Arance Williamson, a former member of the Greenwood City Council, said Cochran also housed reporters covering the trial of the men accused of killing Emmett Till in 1955.
“We called him ‘Dead-Eye,’” she said. “He was a most aggressive businessman, and that gave him a little leverage. He was the go-to person.”
Williamson said Cochran sometimes fed civil rights workers and even, when necessary, hid “outside agitators” from apprehension by the authorities.
During the fight for civil rights, he would put up bond money for activists who were arrested during the protests, Jordan said.
Lisa Cochran-Henry, a victim-witness coordinator with District Attorney Dewayne Richardson’s office and Edward Cochran’s daughter, said he was a generous man and was always helping somebody.”
Cochran was the first president of the Greenwood NAACP chapter when it was organized in 1952. He also owned Stone Street Package Store, located at 301 W. Martin Luther King Drive, as well as several pieces of rental property, his daughter said.
Cochran was killed in a robbery at the package store on Nov. 30, 1995. Two suspects were later convicted of the crime.
Jordan said he regularly visited Cochran at the package store after going out to eat but for some reason did not go there the night of the shooting.
Williamson said Cochran was a mentor and father figure, adding she had just talked to Cochran minutes before he was shot.
“That man did a lot. He was generous and kind,” she said.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
An earlier version of this story misidentified District Attorney Dewayne Richardson.
