Anna Julia Cooper: Educator---------------------------
by Johnnie D outhu
Smithsonian News Service
Il isn't what wc say about our­
selves, i t ’ s w hat our life stands
for.
— Anna J. Cooper
Aug. 10. 19)8
She was the first woman from the
D istric t o f C o lu m b ia to earn a
doctorate fro m the Sorbonne. She
was among the first black women to
earn a b ach e lo r’ s degree fro m an
Am erican college. And she became
p rin c ip al o f the first public high
school fo r black people in the
United Stales.
Anna Julia Cooper, feminist, hu­
man rights advocate, educational re­
form er and teacher, was born into
slavery as A n n ie H ayw o o d in
R aleigh, N .C . , about 1858 (her
exact birthdate is unknown).
But C ooper’s life represented far
m ore than a resume o f achieve­
ments. It illu s tra te d , concludes
Louise
D a n iel
H u tch inson .
Cooper's biographer and historian
at the Sm ith so nian 's A nacostia
N eig h bo rh o od M useum in W ash ­
in g to n , D .C . , that significant ac­
complishments could be made by a
black woman against seemingly in ­
surmountable odds for blacks late in
the 19th century.
" W h e n we co n sid e r," H u tc h in ­
son writes, " th a t s h e .. began her
life under the most adverse circum ­
stances and at a tim e when the
m ental capacity o f blacks and
women was questioned and dispar­
aged, her achievem ents take on
greater significance."
C ooper, indeed, has won a large
place o f respect in American history
fo r steadfastly refusing to bow to
the prevailing view held in the late
1800s that black people should fore­
go higher education for work in the
trades and fields— w ork, this th in k­
ing proceeded, that w ould help
blacks better themselves and
im prove their relations w ith south­
ern whites em bittered by post-Civil
W ar Reconstruction politics.
Fate gave A n n a C ooper a very
long life , one that fo r A m erican
blacks spanned a century o f tu m u l­
tuous history— servitude. C ivil W ar,
em ancipation. Reconstruction and
the b rie f hope o f fu ll citizenship,
reactio n , segregation and. at last,
the slow m ovem ent to w ard real
eq u ality. Cooper died in the 1960s
as the c iv il rights m ovem ent was
com ing to life ; yet her lif e ’ s work
aided that cause. She also was well
ahead o f her tim e in arguing for
women's rights— in particular, roles
for the black woman
T h e C iv il W ar was barely three
years over when little Anna, encour­
aged by her self-sacrificing mother
(whose child presum ably was
fathered by her master. D r. Fabius
J. Haywood Sr.), went o ff to school
at R aleigh 's new St. A u g ustin e’ s
Normal School and Collegiate Insti­
tu te, established by the Episcopal
Church to prepare black teachers to
instruct black yo u th. Bright and
precocious, Anna served as a tutor
at the school, where she received a
small stipend to pay for board and
tuition, but as she would later recall,
" a fte r a while I had a great deal o f
tim e on my hands. I had devoured
what was put before me, and
was
looking for more.”
In that quest, Anna developed a
courageous side that w ould serve
her well in her professional life .
Generations before it was in vogue,
she fought against sexism at St. A u ­
gustine's c o n fro n tin g the issue as
she tried to enroll in a Greek class.
T o ld the class was for males only,
she fought back, won a v ic to ry —
and a seat in class.
Iro nically, a close friendship de­
veloped between the young woman
and her Greek studies teacher, m in­
istry student George A .C . Cooper,
and at the close o f the 1877 school
year, they were m arried. " H e was
pro bably just the kind o f balance
wheel that this intense young w om ­
an needed in her life ,” Hutchinson
suggests. But the shared life and
Dlans they had made were not to be;
George Cooper died two years later,
on Sept. 27, 1879.
Now 21 and a full-tim e teacher at
S. A ugustine's C o o per in 1881
looked to w a rd the possibility o f
higher ed u catio n , ap p ly in g to
O hio 's O berlin College, among the
first U .S . schools to ad m it blacks
an d , especially im p o rta n t to this
w om an , ad m ired fo r its academ ic
standards. W ith her characteristic
directness and cand o r. C o o per
wrote the school's president asking
to be accepted as a " f r e e tu itio n **
student. "Southern schools pay very
m e a n ly ," she declared, but " I ex­
pect to have money enough to keep
me one or two years at college . . . ”
Managing, resourcefully, to com­
plete a classical curriculum at O ber­
lin in 1884, C o o per soon fo un d
another chance to take a stand
against sexism. She had been prom ­
ised a professorship by the president
o f St. Augustine’s but that com m it­
ment was ignored by his successor,
who instead offered Cooper the po­
sition o f "te a c h e r in charge o f
girls.” She refused, then headed for
W ilberforce College, a black church
school in Xen ia. O h io , to chair the
science and m odren language de­
partments.
For this w o rk , O b e rlin awarded
Cooper a master's and its president
recommended her for a teaching post
in Washington, D .C ., at the respect­
ed M Street P re p a ra to ry School
(later, Dunbar High), one o f the na­
tio n 's few black schools at the
tim e — and also fe rtile ground fo r
the coming clash o f two competing,
n a tio n a lly im p o rta n t ed u catio nal
philosophies.
W hen she a rrive d at M Street,
Tuskegee Institute in A lab am a was
emerging as " th e m odel” fo r black
education. Founded by Booker T .
W ashington, Tuskegee stressed vo­
cational and industrial training as a
step to im p ro ve the lives o f black
people and relations w ith whites as
the Reconstruction era gave way to
discrimination and segregation.
Simply put, Washington urged his
Feminist, human rights advocate, educational reformer and teacher, Anna Julia Cooper
(C. 1858-1964) led a remarkable life Born into slavery, she was among the first black women
to earn a bachelor's degree from an American college. latter, she earned a doctorate from the
Sorbonne in Paris In 1925, she wrote: My one aim is and has alw ays been, so far as I may. to
hold a torch for the children of a group too long exploited and too frequently disparaged in
its struggling for the light.
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Now let me suggest first that if we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties
must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend
our race, our tribe, our class, our nation; and this means we must develop a
world perspective. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone, and as
long as we try, the more we are going to have war in the world. Now the
judgement of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together like
brothers or we are all going to perish together like fools.
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