Anna Julia Cooper, activist and teacher at M Street High School in Washington, D.C., is well known for articulating a black feminist stance in her book, A Voice from the South (1892).
Portrait of Dr. Anna .Julia Cooper taken circa 1902 - C.M. Bell, photographer. [between February and December 1903]
Source: Library of Congress,
Notes
- Caption label from exhibit of digital copy in Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote More to the Movement: Anna Julia Cooper, activist and teacher at M Street High School in Washington, D.C., is well known for articulating a black feminist stance in her book, A Voice from the South (1892). Cooper argued for the importance of black women's rights central to education, self-determination, and racial uplift.
- Title is from handwritten label on negative sleeve or negative.
- Date from photographer's logbook.
- Gift; American Genetic Association, 1975.
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The 19th Amendment turns 100 years old this summer 2020. As American women ready for the celebrations of this 100 year anniversary, we are lifting up Dr. Anna Julia Cooper,
Teacher, Scholar, and Timeless Womanist.
Black women fought for the right to vote, along with White women. The suffrage groups were also filled with racist White American women which divided Black and Native American women into their own groups.
Though the 19 Amendment was ratified, and gave American women the right to vote, the Jim/Jane Crow laws, white supremacy and systemic racism restrictions prevented Black women in North Carolina from voting until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, which opened the way for Black Americans to be able to vote in America.
While we do present some of her "life story" background, we also want to present and understanding that she was not just born in slavery.
Her life was more than being an ex-slave, she went on to write scholarship, theories about being a Black woman and her commitments as an educator and activist
Cooper asserts that the white man cannot speak to Black men's experiences and furthermore, that Black men cannot speak to Black women's experiences.
She elaborates on this position in “Womanhood, A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race.”
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Dr. Anna Julia Haywood Cooper, was born enslaved in 1858 in Raleigh, NC. She died February 27, 1964 at the age of 105.in Washington, D.C.
She and her mother, Hannah Stanley Haywood, were held in bondage by George Washington Haywood (1802–1890) who was one of the sons of North Carolina's longest serving state treasurer John Haywood, who helped found the University of North Carolina, but whose estate was later forced to repay missing funds.
Either George, in whose household her mother worked in bondage, or his brother, Dr. Fabius Haywood, in whose household her older brother Andrew was enslaved, were probably Anna's father; Anna's mother refused to clarify paternity.
George became state attorney for Wake County and with a brother owned a plantation in Greene County, Alabama.
Cooper worked as a domestic servant in the Haywood home and had two older brothers, Andrew J. Haywood and Rufus Haywood. Andrew, enslaved by Fabius J. Haywood, later served in the Spanish–American War. Rufus was also born enslaved and became the leader of the musical group Stanley's Band
Dr. Cooper was one of North Carolina's early, outspoken Black woman suffragists. She attended Saint Augustine's College before going on to study at Oberlin College , Columbia University, and the Sorbonne, in Paris .where she earned her PhD in history from the Sorbonne in 1924, which she wrote in French. .
Dr. Cooper was the fourth Black American woman to earn a doctoral degree in the country. She advocated for civil rights for African Americans, and her 1892 book, "A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South," is considered the first Black feminist publication.
Dr. Cooper made contributions to social science fields, particularly in sociology. She is sometimes called "The Mother Of Black Feminism
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