Who is Anna Julia Cooper?

Born a slave in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1858, Anna Julia Cooper rose to prominence as a black writer, educator, activist, and scholar. She graduated with a B.A. from Oberlin College. She is famous for writing A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South, published in 1892. In this book, she argues that it is incumbent on black women to become educated scholars because men are often unable to do so. She contended that black women becoming educated would lift the lot of all blacks.
Cooper was devoted in her pursuit of a doctorate. She began at age 56 in 1914 at Columbia University. However, her studies were derailed for a time by the need to care for her half brother's children after his wife died. Later, she completed her doctorate at the Sorbonne at age 65.
Cooper inspired others with the possibility that a black woman from a deeply oppressed background could achieve the highest that education had to offer.