A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South

Content Warning: This section discusses issues of racism and sexism.

Anna J. Cooper was a prominent Black woman intellectual, educator, and activist. She devoted her life to writing, teaching, and advocating for racial and gender equality and the rights of African Americans, especially Black women, in education. Cooper gained a reputation as a notable social theorist and cultural critic. She founded and participated as an activist in several organizations promoting racial equality and women’s right to vote. As a student in the Saint Augustine Normal and Collegiate Institute in Raleigh, North Carolina, she stood against gender discrimination in education as the administration discouraged women from pursuing higher education. Cooper organized one of the first major protests demanding admission of women to Greek and Latin courses that were traditionally available only to male students. Cooper advocated for her right to attend these courses and was ultimately admitted due to her academic abilities. After finishing her studies, she remained in the institute as an educator. Cooper continued to pursue further education and enrolled in Oberlin College in 1881. Again, she battled gender discrimination and fought for her right to attend courses exclusively reserved for male students. Throughout her career as an educator and intellectual, she advocated for racial justice and equality.

Her first book, A Voice From the South, is a seminal text of early Black feminist thought that demonstrates Cooper’s views on Black education and the central role of Black women in uplifting African Americans. Cooper also offers social criticism about the state of race relations in the late 19th century, following the failure of American society in achieving equality for African Americans during Reconstruction and the emergence of Jim Crow laws. Along with other African American thinkers of the time, like Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells, she highlighted the persistence of racial discrimination and the traumatic legacy of enslavement. Cooper also criticized the stereotypical cultural portrayals of African Americans. Highlighting the contributions of Black people in American society, she urged the country to embrace and actualize its own ideals. Informed by a feminist perspective, she criticized Black men’s sexism and their failure to understand the intersectional oppression faced by Black women due to their race and gender. She also addressed racial discrimination of white people toward Black women within the suffragist movement. For Cooper, Black women had a unique perspective and could contribute to positive solutions on gender and racial discrimination, making their role in social progress essential.