Portland observer., February 20, 1985, Page 17, Image 17

a life of commitment
For this work, Oberlin awarded
Cooper a master's and its president
recommended her for a teaching post
in Washington. D .C .. at the respect­
ed M Street Preparatory School
(later, Dunbar High), one of the na­
tion's few black schools at the
tim e— and also fertile ground for
the coming clash of two competing,
nationally im portant educational
philosophies.
term she was at odds with the white-
dominated board, which insisted on
the vocational approach, believing,
Hutchinson writes, that blacks were
"m entally in fe rio r" and that such
an approach was therefore "appro­
priate." The angered board charged
that under C ooper’s direction
school standards had slipped and
that the faculty was neglecting stu­
dent discipline. A ll the while, how­
ever, M Street students for the first
time were being admitted — many
with scholarships— to H arvard,
Brown and other Ivy League col­
leges.
When she arrived at M Street.
Tuskegee Institute in Alabama was
emerging as "the model" for black
education. Founded by Booker T.
Washington, Tuskegee stressed vo­
cational and industrial training as a
step to improve the lives o f black
people and relations with whites as
the Reconstruction era gave way to
discrimination and segregation.
In 1906, the board fired Cooper.
W riting o f her dismissal, she said:
"T he dominant forces of our coun­
try are not yet tolerant of the higher
steps for colored youth."
Simply put, Washington urged his
fellow Negroes to forget about
Cooper's background and princi­
ples also pul her squarely in the mid-
!n ¡780 N ew Jersey became the first state to pass a law requiring
the compulsory education o f slaves.
The first schoolhouse f o r Blacks was built in Washington, D .C
in 1807 b y three fo rm er slaves.
politics and a college education and
to learn how to be better farmers
and artisans. Cooper also favored
industrial training; yet she found
herself far more closely aligned with
■ he black scholar and author
W .E .B . DuBois who advocated
classical instruction for his race.
" T h e object was black survival,”
says Hutchinson, noting that Coop­
er and others felt that, without the
academic programs, there would be
little hope of getting black students
into college and ultimately the pro­
fessions. “ These students, then,
would become the bootstraps by
which the entire race would be up­
lifted.” Hutchinson concludes.
die of the emerging black women's
club movement. The clubs grew
among women dissatisfied with
being case aside as "colored" units
of white clubs and angered by racial
intolerance throughout American
society, even among religious
groups. Cooper believed "the strug­
gle for human rights might be waged
more effectively with the perspective
and balance o f intelligent black
women," Hutchinson says. Always
one to back polemics with action.
Cooper became a delegate to the
First National Conference of Afro-
American Women in Boston in
1895.
Cooper became principal o f M
Street in 1902, but by the 1904-05
A quarter century later, Cooper,
now in her 60s and back in the D.C.
school system, took time o ff from
REAL KIDS AREN'T ROBOTS
• • if students were robots,
education would be
simple Robot s needs are
all the same
teaching to continue her lifelong
quest for education, this time pursu­
ing a doctorate at the Sorbonne in
Paris. Ironically, the form er slave
girl's dissertation, w ritten in
French, explored the Gallic nation's
attitude toward slavery.
However, In the real world,
education Is not that simple
Real students have their
own individual gifts and
their own limitations They
all need to know that they
are valued by their schools,
thelrcom munltlesand their
nation. They need to know
that they are not fodder for
test machinery, pawns In a
publicity chess game, or
throwaways In the stampede
to prove who's best; Real
students need assurance
that America Is still a country
where each person is valued
for his or her unique poten­
tial and where their schools
plan realistically to meet
their Individual needs;'
In 1930, when she was about 72,
Cooper at last retires, but soon she
was again involved in an effort to
broaden the educational horizons of
black people, now as president o f
Frelinghuysen University, a black
institution in the nation's capital.
The university, established to ed­
ucate poor, working class blacks
from the South, had no real campus
o f its own and met in homes and
other makeshift educational centers.
But the school's morale and very
life was threatened when the D .C .
Board o f Education terminated its
right to confer degrees, thrusting
Cooper into yet another battle over
the issue of educational opportunity
for blacks. Rejecting the concept
that the school could effectively
continue as a non-degree-conferring
institution, she appealed for recon­
sideration, writing the superinten­
dent of schools: " I am unwilling to
preside at a farce."
iic A r p C M fro m B p r t f w r M * r t n A x n rrw
of
- (fw a w r f w i
Vfmrpomr puMthM 0» m a
W o r k in g f o r e x c e lle n c e
a n d e q u i t y in e d u c a t i o n
She lost the battle, and she su f­
fered another blow when her niece
and namesake, whom she had
hoped would carry on the vital
work, died in 1939.
Anna Cooper lived for another
quarter century, quietly but without
losing her life's philosophy. A few
years before she died in 1964, she
wrote how she wished to be remem
bered:
OREGON EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
SALUTES
No flowers pleas, just a smile of
sweet understanding
The knowing look that secs
beyond and says gently and
kindly
Somebody’s teacher on Vacation
now — Resting for the f all
Opening.
Black History Month
Charlotte Forteris Mission
c
Experim ^i^nPreedom
Salutes
Mr. George H. Baldwin
M ay 1 1 ,1 9 0 October Z 1981
B aldw in
George H. Baldwin, a Vietnam Veteran, acquired ownership of what was then
Johnson Sanitary Service in 1970. The name of the company subsequently was
changed and incorporated as an Oregon Corporation in 1971.
Shortly after its incorporation, M r. adolph Evans became a partner with Mr.
Baldwin. During the early period of Baldwin Sanitary Service, Inc., the tw o (2)
owners supported the operation of the company from salaries received as em ­
ployees of Nabisco. Mr. Baldwin later acquired Mr. Evans' share of the company
and again became the sole owner.
From its beginning as a one (1) truck operation, Baldwin Sanitary Service, Inc.,
grew to a staff of ten (10) employees and operates six (6) garbage trucks, two (2)
drop box trucks, one (1) sanitizing truck, and a Flat bed hauler.
Today, under the management of his widow, Seona Baldwin, Baldwin Sanitary
Service, Inc. continues to provide high quality refuse removal service in Portland
Metropolitan Area and Fort Lewis/McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, W A .
Ad sponsored by:
Northeast Business Center & R. A. Hatch Const. Co.
Based 6n her true story Melba Moore
stars as Charlotte Forten who under­
took the task of educating newly
emancipated blacks following the
Civil V\ar.
L
On American Playhouse
Feb. 25 9:00 P.M.
3/7/10/13
Oregon Public Broadcasting
.» »
Portland Observer, February 20, 1985, Section II, Page 9
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