19 Feb, 2012
Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964), Only Woman Quoted in Current US Passport
Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) is not a domicile name, nor is she someone encountered in most U.S. story books. Yet this woman’s life spanned from the post-slavery epoch to the polite rights movement, and via all those years, she fervently pushed for progress, quite for preparation and swell for African-American women.
Perhaps it is correct that in the stream U.S. Passport, which facilities countless quotes from famous American men, Anna Julia Cooper stands alone — as the only lady and the only African-American — who is quoted for her advocacy of leisure as a legacy of humanity.
Her Beginning
Anna Julia Cooper was innate in 1858 to an deferential lady in Raleigh, North Carolina. Anna and her sister were thought to have been fathered by their mother’s white master.
In 1867, dual years after the end of the Civil War, Anna was able to attend Saint Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute, a coeducational propagandize for former slaves. She perceived the homogeneous of a high propagandize preparation and taught for a integrate of years.
In 1877 she married George A.G. Cooper, who had been a clergyman at the school. As was the custom, Anna Cooper was no longer able to learn once she married. When her father died suddenly dual years later, Cooper indispensable to regroup. She decided the best plan was to pursue a college degree. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio on a fee scholarship, earning a BA in 1884 and a Masters in Mathematics in 1887.
After graduation, Cooper returned to Raleigh to teach. Soon she was invited to learn math and scholarship at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth (later famous as M Street and currently as Dunbar High School) in Washington, DC so she moved there. From 1902-1906 she was principal of the propagandize but her curriculum, which concerned college prep for the students, ran afoul of the D.C. propagandize board’s thinking. In 1906 she resigned.
While vital in D.C., she also worked at Frelinghuysen University, an adult preparation propagandize that offering magnanimous humanities and veteran courses for operative African Americans. From 1930-40 she served as boss of Frelinghuysen University. Cooper believed that preparation was the pivotal to success, and she quite advocated for women to have equal rights in both preparation and in the universe in general, including the right to vote.
In Washington, D.C., Cooper helped settle internal organizations for women, immature people, and the poor. Since the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) did not accept African-American members, she created “colored” branches to yield support for immature blacks relocating from the South into Washington, D.C. These and other organizations she shaped helped residence issues involving education, housing, and unemployment.
Published Black Feminist Work
In 1892, Cooper published her initial book, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South. In further to job for equal preparation for women, A Voice from the South modernized her faith that prepared African-American women were pivotal to fortifying the whole race.
The book of essays gained inhabitant attention, and Cooper began lecturing across the nation on topics such as education, polite rights, and the standing of black women. In 1893, she was invited to pronounce about the needs of African-American women at the Chicago World’s Fair, and in 1900, she was one of only dual African-American women to residence the initial Pan-African Conference in London. Many additional vocalization opportunities followed.
In 1911 she began work toward a doctoral grade at Columbia University in New York, but in 1915 a genocide in the family curtailed her educational work. She took time off to catch the shortcoming of lifting her brother’s 5 grandchildren. In 1924 she moved to Paris and enrolled at the Sorbonne in sequence to continue work on her doctorate. In 1925, at the age of sixty-seven, Cooper became the fourth African American lady to obtain a Doctorate of Philosophy.
On Feb 27, 1964, Cooper died in Washington, D.C. at the age of 105, carrying been an effective disciple for African-Americans from the post-slavery epoch to the polite rights movement.
In the stream U.S. Passport, several American group are quoted for their correct sayings, but Anna Julia Cooper is the only lady of any tone who is quoted. Hers reads:
“The means of leisure is not the means of a race or a sect, a celebration or a category — it is the means of humankind, the really legacy of humanity.”
For some-more profiles during Black History Month, send me your email with “Profiles” in the theme line. I’ll supplement you to the list. kate@americacomesalive.com
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