Anna Julia Cooper was a scholar, educator, and activist who championed the rights of Black women and the broader African American community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into slavery in 1858, she became one of the first Black women to earn a Ph.D., receiving her doctorate in history from the University of Paris in 1925. Her seminal work, A Voice from the South (1892), argued for the essential role of Black women in racial and social progress. A lifelong advocate for education, she taught and served as a principal at prominent institutions for Black students, believing that education was the key to empowerment and equality. Cooper’s contributions to Black feminism and intellectual thought continue to inspire generations.
Learn more about Anna Julia Cooper here: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/cooper-a-voice-from-the-south.htm