STREAM EXCLUSIVE ORIGINALS

This Day in Black History: Aug. 10, 1858

Author and educator Anna Julia Cooper was born on Aug. 10, 1858.

Born on Aug. 10, 1858, author and educator Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was the fourth African-American woman to earn her Ph.D. in 1925. She received her doctorate in history from the Sorbonne in Paris upon defending her dissertation titled The Attitude of France on the Question of Slavery Between 1789 and 1848.

 

Having expressed a desire to teach from an early age, she taught and headed the Modern Languages Department at Wilberforce University and became principal of Preparatory High School for Colored Youth (also known as M Street and now Dunbar High School) in 1901.

 

Cooper was also known for her speeches, including addresses to the World’s Congress of Representative Women in Chicago in 1893 and the Pan-African Conference in London in 1900.

 

Often heard using the phrase, “not the boys less, but the girls more,” Cooper addressed critical issues around gender equality through her conversations, speeches and writings.

 

The only woman elected into the American Negro Academy, a secret society, Cooper would continue on to become the second president of Frelinghuysen University, a non-traditional group of schools for colored working people, in 1930.  

 

 

BET National News - Keep up to date with breaking news stories from around the nation, including headlines from the hip hop and entertainment world. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. 

(Photo: cooperproject.org)

Latest News

Subscribe for BET Updates

Provide your email address to receive our newsletter.


By clicking Subscribe, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. You also agree to receive marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers) and other information from BET and the Paramount family of companies. You understand that you can unsubscribe at any time.