Anna Julia Cooper

Anna Julia Cooper

Anna Julia Cooper was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, in August 1858. She was among the Black Liberation Activist, American speaker, sociologist, educator, author, and one of the most famous African-American scholars in American history.  Her book, “A Voice From the South by a Black Woman of the South,” became a classic African American feminist text.  Anna Julia Cooper was born into slavery. She was the daughter of a slave woman and her white slaveholder. She triumphed against the odds of race and gender to get a world-class education and gain power and prestige academically as well as in social circles. She received a Ph.D. in history from the Sorbonne in 1924, becoming the fourth African American to earn a doctorate. Cooper was also a famous member of Washington DC’s African American community and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She contributed to the social science sector, specifically in the field of sociology.

She became involved with the work she did after her husband’s death, who died after two years of marriage. This is because she was able to continue teaching vocal and instrumental music, higher English, modern history, and classics since if she had remained married, she would have to withdraw from the university and become a housewife.  Cooper’s husband’s death could have contributed to her being involved in the work she did since after his death, Cooper entered Oberlin College in Ohio to continue following her course of study designated for men. At Oberlin College, Cooper had fellow black women among her classmates Ida Gibbs and Mary Church Terrell.  At college, Cooper was part of LLS, which was a society for women featuring programs with distinguished speakers, orchestras and singers.

After moving to Washington, together with Mary Church Terrell, Evelyn Shaw, Mary Jane Peterson, Charlotte Forten, Ida Bailey, and Helen Cook, they formed the Colored Women’s League, where she became the president.  It was a service-oriented club aiming to enhance unity, social progress, and the best interests of the African American community. She became entangled in controversy, including the differing attitudes concerning black education, as Cooper recommended a model of classical education supported by Du Bois meant to prepare eligible learners for higher education and leadership instead of vocational system enhanced by Booker Washington. Her advocacy in this system made her leave school. Her work was also contributed by Cooper being i9nvolved in black women’s club movement.  The club members were normally educated middle-class women who thought that it was women’s role to assist less-fortunate African Americans. It is during this period that she became a famous public speaker. Cooper addressed different large groups, including the Pan African Conference in 1900 and the National Conference of Colored Women in 1895.

Cooper believed that education is the best investment for African American prosperity and advocated that learners must get practical education that will make them be able to earn a living. She suggested that only those learners showing special aptitude or desire have to be educated thoroughly in the humanities. She described her vocation as “the education of neglected people” and saw education, higher education in particular, as the way for black women to advance. Cooper believed that intellectual development, with the personal-reliance and capacity for earning a livelihood which it offers, would supersede any requirement for relying on men. Letting women extend their horizons and get their sympathies, multiplied, deepened, and extended. She had a strong resolve in education as equivalent to the development of people of color. She even refused her white mandate of teaching her students trades, and instead educated them and prepared them for college. Generally, Cooper believed that the progress of people of color depended on education, and black women’s education would deliver them from depending on men. Among her work is seen as one of the first articulations of black feminism.

Cooper was concerned about equality and wrote her work in social theory. She wrote about standpoint and intersectionality. She argues that she wrote since every standpoint required to be heard in adjudicating conflict in social life and the argument concerning race relations and the nature and fate of the black people can’t yet be finalized. Her theory is ground on a quest for justice for the silent and unconsented defendant, here, the black client in the ongoing national trial over race connections. She also collaborated with other African Americans thinkers in laying the base-work for an American conflict theory that sees the dynamic in the community.

I think Cooper would be proud of the education and black women’s rights in the world today. She would see significant progress, and she would say that the education structure has tried to develop personal development and engagement in civic life. She would say that access to formal education has expanded dramatically. Given that education has been made a right to all people all over the world, including for the people of color, Cooper would be satisfied with the progress.

We have made a stride on the issues Cooper believed and advocated for. She believed that education is the way for African Americans to progress, and they have dramatically progressed. Cooper called for women’s rights and talked about feminism and social theory. We have made progress since black women have the right to education as any other person. The government has shifted its priority from education for citizenship to education for productivity with significant consequences. However, the issue is not yet over. Racism is still seen today in America, especially to people of color. The education also still has some problems although we have made progress. There is inequality in education in terms of poor education and a good education. This issue can be argued in the idea of equality of outcome and equality of opportunity. The ultimate test of an education structure is whether the system is ensuring all learners, regardless of their background, are exposed to the content they require to compete in the current society.