Essay on Anna Julia Cooper - 2476 Words

Anna Julia Cooper 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 . . . race enters with me The life of Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) affords rich opportunities for studying the developments in African-American and Ameri can life during the century following emancipation. Like W.E.B. DuBois, Coopers life is framed by especially momentous years in U.S. history: the final years of slavery and the climactic years of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Coopers eclect ic and influential career mirrored the times. Although her life was privileged in relation to those of the majority of†¦show more content†¦In 1925, Cooper finally received her doctorate, from the University of Paris, thereby becoming the fourth African-American woman to receive that degree. Coopers wri ting style changed as her life went on and she was not able to write consistently, but she did continue writing well into her eighties.3 Coopers writings and life expressed her strong social concerns. Indeed, on a college questionnaire in 19 32, she wrote that her chief cultural interest was the education of the underprivileged.4 This commitment is exhibited beyond her work as an educator and extends to the conscientiousness that infected her scholarship and her social activism. lt; h3Development of a Feminist Critique The first account that Cooper gives of her struggle against sexism is from her teenage years. She relates in her first and only full-length book5, A Voice from the South by a Blac k Woman from the South (1892), her protestation to the principal of St. Augustines concerning the treatment of women in the school. One gets the sense that her strong convictions and deep feelings on the subject commenced to emerge even at that youn g age: A boy, however meager his equipment and shallow his pretensions, had only to declare a floating intention to study theology and he could get all the support, encouragement and stimulus he needed, be absolved from work and invested beforehandShow MoreRelatedAnna Julia Cooper3214 Words   |  13 PagesAnna Julia Cooper Zandra Owens November 23, 2009 SOC 480-D1/ Sociological Seminar Fayetteville State University Abstract Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (1859-1964) was one of the most influential African-American educators of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As an activist, author, and scholar, she dedicated her entire life to the education and empowerment of African-American youth and adults. Her commitment and passionate belief in the power of educationRead More Intellectual Women Work Through the Theories of the Talented Tenth1456 Words   |  6 Pagesbetween the actions of Anna Julia Cooper, bell hooks, and Patricia Hill Collins as each intellectual carries (or carried) on the work of the Talented Tenth. This research will include a discussion of Coopers educational work as well as her speaking career; in both areas she advocated equal education opportunities for Black women. The central concern of DuBois theory, his advocacy for education and the creation of an upper class of Blacks, was thus promoted by Cooper through these vehicles. IRead MoreSlavery And Jim Crow Laws1613 Words   |  7 Pagesrace have made tremendous strides in their efforts to level out the playing field between the two races.   The rise of abolitionism is were the journey for equality began with black political theorist like, David Walker, Fredrick Douglas, and Anna Julia Cooper. Decades later the Civil Rights Era would continue the work of those former slaves ultimately changing the treatment of black people nationwide. Black activist like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Mary McLeod Bethune along withRead More Lynching and Women: Ida B. Wells Essay937 Words   |  4 Pagesand mob violence around 1910 and is the oldest civil rights organization in the United States. [7] Wells’ resistance to white male ideology influenced other leading black women of the time, such as Anna Julia Cooper, who was instrumental in organizing women to resist race and gender control. Cooper helped found the Colored Women’s Young Woman’s Christian Association (YWCA) in 1905. [8] Another black female contemporary that Wells inspired was Pauline Hopkins. Hopkins was a writer and journalistRead MoreI Am Applying Intersectionality And The Sociological Imagination1080 Words   |  5 Pagesdelves into the history of intersectionality. The sub-chapter presents a chronological order of how intersectionality originated and its current usage. According to â€Å"Theoretical Framework: Intersectionality,† Anna Julia Cooper created the concept. The authors write, â€Å"the works of Anna Julia Cooper gave birth to the idea of intersectionality illustrating how discrimination can be experienced in varying degrees† (Norris; Murphy-Erby; Zajiceck 2007) . However, intersectionality gained prominence later (theRead More Lifting as We Climb Essay3009 Words   |  13 PagesLifting as We Climb Harriet Jacobs, Frances E. W. Harper, and Anna Julia Cooper are three African American female writers who have greatly impacted the progress of black womanhood. Through their works, they have successfully dispelled the myths created about black women. These myths include two major ideas, the first being that all African American women are perceived as more promiscuous than the average white woman. The second myth is that black women are virtually useless, containing onlyRead MoreThe Women s Rights Movement2643 Words   |  11 Pagescaused a rift between women of color involved in the movement and white women. Even with the massive rift, the two factions still wanted the same thing; the right to vote. All of this wouldn’t have been achieved without women like Ida B. Wells, Anna Julia Cooper and Mary Church Terrell. Ida B. Wells was known for being an anti-lynching activist, suffragist, and women’s rights advocate. Born a slave in Mississippi, she was the oldest of eight children. Her parents and youngest sibling died of yellowRead MoreThe Black Freedom Struggle For Equality Essay1980 Words   |  8 Pageswas not uncommon for these literati to undermine dominant discourses in order to bolster their own analyses. Among the discussed black intellectuals who inverted prevailing dissertations, three that stood out the most are Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, and David Walker. In Frederick Douglass’ speech â€Å"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro† on July 5, 1852, he inverts the idea of the United States’ celebration of freedom by calling out the misconstructions that people have put on blacksRead MoreAfrican Literature and Culture1447 Words   |  6 Pagesfather is a persona of indifference and casual cruelty of which the narrator later comes to associate with the ways of the British colonizers who taught her father about money and greed, power and domination. In many African texts (Sofola 1998; Cooper 1995), the female gender is stereotyped as the fertile and nurturing Earth Mother to the lazy, debauched young beauty. This was the African woman’s identity -the mother, the caretaker; not the provider or independent woman known in today’s societyRead More Ethics in International Security Essay examples3000 Words   |  12 Pagesresponsibilities of various parties on these software issues. Plato’s Republic provides a sound starting place for understanding rights and responsibilities within a society. In An Introduction to Plato’s Republic, Julia Annas explores Plato’s requirements for the â€Å"Just Society.† Annas claims that Plato’s social construct relies on the Guardians, or leaders, and their education and character to define the entire society. She states that Plato repeatedly insists that â€Å"the city stands or falls with