Anna J. Cooper
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| Anna J. Cooper | |
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| Born | Anna Julia Haywood Cooper August 10, 1858 Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A. |
| Died | February 27, 1964 (age 105) Washington, D.C. |
| Spouse(s) | George A. C. Cooper (1877-1879) |
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (ca. August 10, 1858 – February 27, 1964) was an author, educator, and one of the most prominent African American scholars in United States history. Upon receiving her Ph.D in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1924, Cooper became the fourth African American woman to earn a doctorate degree. She was also a prominent member of Washington, D.C.'s African American community.
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[edit] Childhood and education
Anna Julia Cooper was born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1858 to Hannah Stanley Haywood, an enslaved woman in the home of prominent Wake County landowner George Washington Haywood. Haywood is widely believed by historians to be the biological father of Stanley's seven daughters. Cooper had two older brothers named Andrew J. Haywood and Rufus Haywood.
In 1868 when she was around nine years old, Cooper received a scholarship to attend school at the newly opened Saint Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute, founded by the local Episcopal Diocese for the purpose of training teachers to educate former slaves and their families. During her fourteen years at St. Augustine's, she distinguished herself as a bright and ambitious student, who showed equal dexterity with both liberal arts and analytical disciplines like math and science. During this period, St. Augustine's pedagogical emphasis was on training young men for the ministry, and preparing ambitious men for additional training at four-year universities. The school had a special track reserved for women dubbed the "Ladies' Course", and the administration actively discouraged women from pursuing higher-level courses. Cooper fought for her right to take courses, such as Greek, which were reserved for men by demonstrating her scholastic ability.
Cooper also worked as a pupil-teacher, which allowed her to pay for her educational expenses. After completing her studies, she remained at the institution as an instructor.
[edit] A Voice from the South: Cooper as Author
During her years as teacher and principal at M Street High School, Cooper completed her first book, A Voice from the South: By A Woman from the South, published in 1892. Perhaps her most well-known volume of writing, A Voice from the South is widely viewed as one of the first articulations of Black feminism. The book advanced a vision of self-determination through education and social uplift for African American women. Its central thesis was that the educational, moral, and spiritual progress of black women would improve the general standing of the entire African American community. Cooper advanced the view that it was the duty of educated and successful black women to support their underprivileged peers in achieving their goals. The essays in A Voice from the South also touched on a variety of topics, from racism and the socioeconomic realities of black families to the administration of the Episcopal Church.
[edit] Later years
In 1914, Cooper began courses for her doctoral degree at Columbia University, but was forced to interrupt her studies in 1915 when she adopted the five children of her late half-brother upon their mother's passing. Later on she was able to transfer her credits to the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and over the course of a decade was able to research and compose her dissertation, completing her coursework in 1924. Cooper defended her thesis The Attitude of France on the Question of Slavery Between 1789 and 1848 in 1925. At the age of sixty-five, Cooper became the fourth black woman in American history to earn a Doctorate of Philosophy degree.
On February 27, 1964, Cooper died in Washington, D.C. at the age of 105. Her memorial was held in a chapel on the campus of Saint Augustine's College, where her academic career began. She was buried alongside her husband at the City Cemetery in Raleigh.
Pages 26 and 27 of every new United States passport contain the following quote: "The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class - it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity." - Anna Julia Cooper
In 2009, the United States Postal Service released a commemorative stamp in Cooper's honor.
[edit] See also
- African American history
- African American literature
- List of African American writers
- List of Alpha Kappa Alpha sisters
- List of centenarians
- List of people on stamps of the United States
[edit] References
- Shockley, Ann Allen, Afro-American Women Writers 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide, New Haven, Connecticut: Meridian Books, 1989. ISBN 0-452-00981-2
[edit] Sources
- A Voice From the South by Anna Julia Cooper---The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers (Oxford University Press, 1990).
- The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper : Including A Voice From the South and Other Important Essays, Papers, and Letters by Charles Lemert. Legacies of Social Thought Series (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998).
- Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment by Patricia Hill Collins. Second edition. (Routledge, 2000).
- Uplifting-Women-Race-Educational-Philosophies Uplifting the Women and the Race: The Educational Philosophies and Social Activism of Anna Julia Cooper and Nannie Helen Burroughs by Karen A. Johnson. (Garland Publishing, 2000).
[edit] External links
- Essays by Anna J. Cooper at Quotidiana.org
