Education
Cole attended Baltimore public schools and graduated from Douglass High School, He then attended and graduated as class valedictorian from Morgan State College with an Bachelor of Arts in 1943.
Cole attended Baltimore public schools and graduated from Douglass High School, He then attended and graduated as class valedictorian from Morgan State College with an Bachelor of Arts in 1943.
Born in Washington, District of Columbia, Cole was one of five children. His father died while he was an infant and his mother moved the family back to Baltimore where she had grown up. Immediately after college, Cole joined the United States. Army where he was commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps.
He received an honorable discharge in 1946.
Cole resumed his education and went on to the University of Maryland Law School where he earned an Bachelor of Laws in 1949. He was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1949.
Associate Judge, Municipal Court of Baltimore City, 1967. Associate Judge, Supreme Bench of Baltimore City (now Circuit Court), 1967-1977.
Associate Judge, Maryland Court of Appeals, 1977-1991.
Cole was also a member of the Maryland State Senate and the first African-American ever elected to the Maryland Senate and the first African-American to serve on the Maryland Court of Appeals.