Women of distinction/Chapter 49
CHAPTER XLIX.
MRS. A. J. COOPER.
If we should be asked to-day to name the greatest female educator the race has produced in North Carolina, we would be most certain to mention that one that marks the beginning of this chapter. She is not only the greatest that we know of as a North Carolinian of color, but she is possibly the peer of any the State has produced, of whom we have any account, as a female educator in either race.
Our more favored neighbors can well boast of many good and eminent women, such as Lydia H. Sigourney, Alice Carey and Phoebe Carey, etc., but they all came through only a part of the great storm that negro women of eminence have to contend with. It is simply remarkable, when one contrasts the two roads leading to eminence, to behold the difference.
In the pathway along which negro wonien have to travel may be found almost every conceivable difficulty to be overcome alone by the traveler; from poverty, through humiliation (even upon public thoroughfares), to almost a sacrifice of friends and life. A long, up-hill and lonesome journey, and therefore the more remarkable, especially in the South, when compared with the easy pathway of our more favored sisters. When an Afro-American woman dees arrive at any eminence it is well known that she has fought a fierce and bloody battle almost every step of her way. Despite all the opposition and conflicts within and without the ranks of the race, some of our women are eminent, among whom is Mrs. A. J. Cooper, who was born in Raleigh, N. C. , August 10, 1858.
xt a very early age she entered St. Augustine Normal School, being among the first boarding pupils at that institution. When she was possibly about eleven years old she was given a class as student-teacher, which was the beginning of her career as teacher, in which profession she has continued to this day. She was married in 1877 to Rev. G. A. C. Cooper, of Nassau, New Providence, West Indies, who was, at the time of marriage (1877), a teacher in St. Augustine School and pastor of the St. Augustine Church at Raleigh, N. C. In 1879 her husband died and left her a widow only twenty-one years old.
After filling with much credit in this school many positions, such as pupil-teacher, teacher, matron, and lady in charge of female department, etc., she left in 1881 for Oberlin College, where she entered the sophomore class, upon examination. While thus engaged in study in the classical department she taught classes in the preparatory department, and the Students in the classes taught by this Afro-American lady were white students.
She was also the private teacher of a class of white students outside of school hours. She graduated in 1884, and spent one year at Wilberforce University (1884-'85) as professor of modern languages and science. Then she returned to St. Augustine Normal School at Raleigh, N. C, and taiiglit two years. In 1887 she was elected to a position in the High School of Washington, D. C. , where she has been engaged in teaching ever since. She has just published a book entitled "A Voice From the South," which we have not as yet had opportunity to examine. That Mrs. Cooper is a lady of rare ability is acknowledged by all scholars who know her.
As great and as learned, as refined and popular as she is, she is still not exempted from humiliation on public railways in some parts of the South. Just a few days ago (the last days of 1892) she chanced to visit her old home and peep in upon her friends in Raleigh, N. C, and when leaving even this city of her birth she was insulted in a waiting-room at the depot, and ejected from the room. For what? Simply because she was a colored woman.
Insulted and ejected (with a first-class ticket in her hand) by a white man who is by far her inferior in every respect. [Note.—I mention this treatment here as simply an opportunity to place it upon record, and let it go down in history to posterity.] Indeed, it is true that great negro women work hard and go through much that is far from being pleasant after as well as before achieving greatness.
However the storms, and whatever the difficulties, the women of this race have bright prospects of a better future in such pioneers and representatives as Mrs. A. J. Cooper.