Last week’s profile of Dr. William S. Scarborough brought to mind Anna Julia Cooper, both of whom shared a connection to Oberlin and Wilberforce in Ohio. I first discovered Cooper while teaching at Oberlin in the early seventies, when one of my students submitted a paper on her. Before that, I had never heard of her. I later included her in my book “Autobiography of a People,” but I don’t recall ever featuring her in my column. This being Women’s History Month, there isn’t a more appropriate way to shine the light on this distinguished scholar.
Born Anna Julia Haywood on August 10, 1858 in Raleigh, N.C., she and her mother Hannah Stanley Haywood, were enslaved by George Washington Haywood, a son of one of the founders of University of North Carolina. There is some doubt about Anna’s father who either was George or his brother, Dr. Fabius Haywood — who enslaved her older brothers, Rufus and Andrew. When Anna was ten years old, she received a scholarship at Saint Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute that would pay her expenses. She would spend 14 years at the School, excelling in math, science, French, Greek and Latin. It was during this phase of her matriculation that she began expressing her rights as a woman, insisting that she be included in courses set aside for men only. Among the men in preparation for higher academic training was George A.C. Cooper, later to become her husband. They enjoyed only two years of marriage before his death.
Anna’s achievements as a student enabled her to tutor younger children and pay for her expenses. It was an easy transition to becoming fully employed at the academy, teaching the classics, modern history, English, and even classes in vocal and instrumental music. Much of this may have been facilitated by her husband’s death — if he had lived she may have been required to be dispatched to wifely duties in the home.
She began studying at Oberlin upon leaving Saint Augustine’s and graduated in 1884, though she was not able to continue her musical pursuits. Fortunately, there were two literary societies for women. It was during these sessions that she met a number of outstanding Black women, including Mary Church Terrell. Before returning to Saint Augustine’s in 1885, she briefly taught at Wilberforce. Then it was back to Oberlin where she earned a M.A. in mathematics by 1888. Two years later one of her first major essays, “Higher Education of Women,” was published. In many ways, it was a harbinger of later literary, political, and feminist topics that would highlight her career.
Some of her ideas, particularly as it pertained to “double consciousness,” education, and women’s rights preceded the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, and he often cited such publications and commentary without offering full attributions. In 1900, Anna made her first voyage to Europe, mainly as a participant in the historic First Pan-African Conference in London, planned by Henry Sylvester Williams and Du Bois. She used this opportunity to travel across the continent, including stops in Scotland, Paris, Germany, and Italy. By this time she had settled in D.C., continuing her significant work with the Colored Women’s League, in association with such notables as Terrell, Evelyn Shaw, Ida B. Wells, Charlotte Forten Grimke, and Mary Jane Patterson. Helen Cook was elected president of the organization.
Perhaps the most important member of the group was Ms. Grimke, whose friendship was instrumental in forging contacts and job opportunities in the nation’s capital. Almost upon arrival in the city, Anna began teaching at the legendary M School, and ultimately becoming the principal. The post was not without its complications, especially when her classical approach to the curriculum conflicted with members of different views. Things became so bad that the D.C. school board refused to reappoint her to the position in 1906.
During her tenure at M School, where she was later reinstated, Anna published her first book, “A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South.” For the most part, the book is a compendium of essays, across a broad tapestry of topics, none more critical than her views on the role of Black women in education, self-help, social uplift, and feminism. One of the oft-cited comments from the book is this one: “Only the Black Woman can say when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me. Is it not evident then that as individual workers for this race we must address ourselves with no half-hearted zeal to this feature of our mission. The need is felt and must be recognized by all. There is a call for workers, for missionaries, for men and women with the double consecration of a fundamental love of humanitv and a desire for its melioration through the Gospel; but superadded to this we demand an intelligent and sympathetic comprehension of the interests and special needs of the Negro. I see not why there should not be an organized effort for the protection and elevation of our girls such as the White Cross League in England.”
Anna was 56 when she began taking courses for her doctoral degree at Columbia University in 1914, which was put on hold for a year after she adopted her late half-brother’s five children upon their mother’s death. Over the succeeding decade, which was partially completed in Paris, by 1924 she was ready to defend her thesis, “The Attitude of France on the Question of Slavery Between 1789 and 1848.” At the age of 65, she became the fourth Black woman in American history to earn a doctorate in philosophy. Five years later, she was elected to take the helm at Frelinghuysen University, an institution that focused on increasing literacy among the marginalized African Americans and unskilled workers.
Anna was 105 when she died on Feb. 27, 1964 in Washington, D.C. A memorial service was held in a chapel on the campus of Saint Augustine’s College where she began her academic career. She is buried alongside her husband at the City Cemetery in Raleigh.