Women You May Not Know
Anna Julia Cooper
1858 - 1964
Biography
The daughter of a slave and a southern landowner, Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) was, like her nine siblings, born into domestic servitude. But Cooper’s early scholastic performance ensured her a place in courses usually reserved for men.
Adept in math, science, and the humanities, Cooper argued for civil and women’s rights throughout her careers as teacher, high school principal, and university president.
She was also a sought-after orator, delivering speeches at the World’s Congress of Representative Women (1893) and the first Pan-African Conference (1900), among others.
Although widowed young, Cooper was still foster mother to many, and adopted her half-brother’s five orphaned children in 1915.
Her A Voice from the South (1892) argues that the key to total African-American empowerment lies in the intellectual and social advancement of Black women. Cooper’s 1925 doctoral thesis made her the fourth African American woman ever to earn a Ph.D.
American passports feature her words even today:
“The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or sect, a party or a class—it is the cause of every human kind, the very birthright of humanity.”
—From A Voice from the South, 1892
By Jen Hawkins