Notable people · Educator · Civil Rights
Anna Julia Cooper
Born enslaved in Raleigh, North Carolina, Cooper earned a B.A. (1884) and M.A. in mathematics (1888) at Oberlin College. She wrote A Voice from the South (1892) and earned a Sorbonne PhD in 1925.
At a glance
- Born
- 1858-08-10
- Died
- 1964-02-27
- Education
- Saint Augustine's Normal School, Raleigh, NC, from 1868
- Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, to 1888, B.A. 1884; M.A. 1888
- University of Paris, Paris, France, to 1925, Ph.D.
- Known as
- Educator, Civil Rights
- Organizations
- Oberlin College
Life story
Anna Julia Haywood was born into slavery in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1858. At nine she won a scholarship to Saint Augustine's Normal School in Raleigh.
She married George Cooper in 1877; he died two years later. She went to Oberlin College, earning a bachelor's degree in 1884 and a master's in mathematics in 1888, one of the first Black women with the degree.
She taught in Washington, D.C., and published A Voice from the South in 1892, an early work of Black feminist thought. She became principal of M Street High School in 1902.
At sixty-six she earned a doctorate from the University of Paris, completed in 1925. She died in Washington in 1964 at 105.
Timeline
- 1868: Starts at Saint Augustine's (Raleigh, NC) source
- 1877: Marries George A. C. Cooper (Raleigh, NC) source
- 1884: B.A., Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH) source
- 1888: M.A., Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH) source
- 1892: A Voice from the South published (Washington, D.C.) source
- 1893: Speaks at World's Congress of Representative Women (Chicago, IL) source
- 1900: Attends First Pan-African Conference (London, England) source
- 1902: Principal of M Street High School (Washington, D.C.) source
- 1925: Ph.D., University of Paris (Paris, France) source
- 1964-02-27: Dies (Washington, D.C.) source
What Anna is known for
- Oberlin B.A. 1884 and M.A. 1888
- A Voice from the South (1892)
- PhD, University of Paris, 1925
- A Voice from the South (1892)
- Doctoral dissertation on France and slavery (1925)
Honors and things named for them
- 2009 USPS stamp
- Quoted in the U.S. passport (2016 edition)
- Anna Julia Cooper Center, Wake Forest University
- Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School, Richmond, VA
Family
- mother: Hannah Stanley Haywood
- husband: George A. C. Cooper
Ohio places
Where Anna Julia Cooper was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.
- School: Oberlin, Lorain County ZIP 44074 · Oberlin · Lorain County
Further reading
Sources
Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.
- Wikipedia: Anna J. Cooper dates, Oberlin degrees, PhD 1925
