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This article was authored by Caitlyn Cobb. This article was originally written in 2017 and has now been updated in 2025 to include more of Anna Julia Cooper’s voting rights work, particularly noted in her 1892 book A Voice from the South: By a Woman from the South. Note from the author: This article is comprised of quotes from many different articles in order to provide a more comprehensive view of the life and legacy of Anna Julia Cooper’s fight for African American women’s suffrage and the general upliftment of African American women. All sources are linked in green throughout the article.
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Today, February 15th, 2025, we honor Anna Julia Cooper, who “was an American educator, writer, and scholar remembered for her pioneering crusade for the upliftment of African-American women.”
“Anna Julia Cooper lived through slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, women’s suffrage, the lynchings and legal segregation of Jim Crow, the era of Betty Friedan’s ‘Feminine Mystique,’ and the renewal of the Civil Rights movement. As an African-American woman of the 19th and 20th centuries, she knew firsthand that the struggles for human liberty and equality did not end with the…attainment of legal citizenship and the right to vote.”
“While notable for her long life span, Cooper is most remarkable for the amount and significance of her accomplishments over the course of her lifetime, as well as the dedication and perseverance she exhibited while fighting tirelessly for what she thought was just. Cooper made no concessions in her fight; believing “a cause is not worthier than its weakest elements,” she decried movements advocating for women’s rights and racial justice for ignoring black women who were victims of both oppressions. Cooper was critical of black men for hailing opportunities that were not open to black women as markers of racial progress, and openly confronted leaders of the women’s movement for allowing the racism within it to remain unchecked. She recognized that neither movement could achieve its cause while still being divided by race or gender.”
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