Anna Julia Cooper’s Birthday
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
It does not have to be Black History Month, or Women’s History Month for us to honor Black women who made major contributions to getting us to where we are today. Sadly, many of those women have never become household names. I’m thinking about Anna Julia Cooper today on her birthday. She lived to the age of 105, spanning every major era of our history as Black people in the United States.
While I was collecting birthday names for today’s twitter roundup in the comments section, I was reminded by (and very glad to see) several tweets about her, though they have very few shares.
Here is a woman who was born enslaved in 1858 in Raleigh, North Carolina, the child of the rape of her mother by their “owner master” George Washington Haywood or his brother, Dr. Fabius Haywood. She would go on from those ugly beginnings in life to earn a BA in 1884 from Oberlin College, followed by a masters degree in mathematics in 1887.
From her Columbia University bio:
Cooper published her first book, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, in 1892. In addition to calling for equal education for women, A Voice from the South advanced Cooper’s assertion that educated African American women were necessary for uplifting the entire black race. The book of essays gained national attention, and Cooper began lecturing across the country on topics such as education, civil rights, and the status of black women. In 1902, Cooper began a controversial stint as principal of M Street High School (formerly Washington Colored High). The white Washington, D.C. school board disagreed with her educational approach for black students, which focused on college preparation, and she resigned in 1906.
Cooper also established and co-founded several organizations to promote black civil rights causes. She helped found the Colored Women’s League in 1892, and she joined the executive committee of the first Pan-African Conference in 1900. Since the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) did not accept African American members, she created “colored” branches to provide support for young black migrants moving from the South into Washington, D.C.
Cooper resumed graduate study in 1911 at Columbia University in New York City. After the death of her brother in 1915, however, she postponed pursuing her doctorate in order to raise his five grandchildren. She returned to school in 1924 at the University of Paris in France. In 1925, at the age of 67, Cooper became the fourth African American woman to obtain a doctorate of philosophy. In 1930, Cooper retired from teaching to assume the presidency of Frelinghuysen University, a school for black adults. She served as the school’s registrar after it was reorganized into the Frelinghuysen Group of Schools for Colored People. Cooper remained in that position until the school closed in 1950.
While collecting the tweets above, I remembered that I featured her here on Daily Kos for Women’s History Month, last year.
There is still a major imbalance in how we teach our history, in terms of the inclusion of Black women. Slowly, we are getting better at it, thanks to the efforts of a new generation of Black, feminist historian scholars.
We can do more.
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NEWS ROUND UP BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS MANAGING EDITOR
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When people think of Muslim women, impeccable fashion sense isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind. But N’aimah Abdullah, show coordinator for the 35th annual Sealed Nectar Fashion Show last month, has been a part of changing that perception.
The designer pushed the envelope this year by creating a cruise-themed Islamic fashion event complete with beachwear, tropical music, and a vacation-inspired runway.
“This is Black women showing their creativity and allowing themselves that place to shine,” Abdullah explained to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’re the leaders in fashion and when you start talking about colors and styles and all of these different things — African American women have been unapologetically fashionable.”
She was inspired by her own life for this year’s theme, which pays homage to the summers she spent (pre-COVID) traveling through the Caribbean with her girlfriends while decked out in eye-catching modest fashion designs.
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While the above headline may seem incendiary, it is important not to draw false equivalencies because all criminal cases are not equal. For example, in this specific story, two women—one Black, one white—were convicted of the exact same crime. However, the two cases are not the same. One is worse than the other.
According to the Plain Dealer, On August 2, former Chagrin Falls, Ohio Village Clerk Debbie Bosworth pleaded no contest to 22 counts of theft in office, tampering with records and money laundering after auditors discovered she had embezzled more than $238,000 over the span of 20 years. The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office rejected the 53-year-old Bosworth’s plea and asked a judge to sentence her to prison, even though she wrote a check for $100,000 to repay part of her debt when her scheme was uncovered.
But Bosworth is white, as is Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Hollie Gallagher. And in the history of America, there isn’t one documented case of a “Hollie” sending a “Debbie” to prison (yes, we actually checked). So, Gallagher, citing the fact that Bosworth paid back some of the money she stole, sentenced her fellow white woman to two years probation, much to the chagrin of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley, who issued a statement saying he found the sentence “to be unacceptable in that he believes public employees who steal from taxpayers should go to prison.”
The very next day, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor James Gutierrez—the same assistant district attorney who prosecuted Bosworth—recommended a prison sentence for 51-year-old former school secretary Karla Hopkins for stealing $40,000 from Maple Heights High School. Although Hopkins appeared before the exact same court, Hopkins’ judge was a white man, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Rick Bell. Unlike Bosworth, Gallagher pleaded guilty. Unlike Bosworth, Hopkins was only charged with one count of theft in office. Unlike Bosworth, Hopkins had already found a new job, completed an in-patient program for her gambling addiction and had promised to repay the money she stole.
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When police officers, with guns drawn, surrounded the home Eric Brown was showing to his friend, he thought there was a fugitive outside. But "they were here for us," he said he came to realize. NBC: Black real estate agent, clients handcuffed outside of Michigan home they were viewing
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When a Black real estate agent glanced out the window of a house he was showing and saw a police officer circling the property with his gun drawn, he was afraid there was a fugitive in the yard. "This is kind of a nice house, but there’s a criminal outside," Eric Brown said he thought to himself when he saw the officer.
At the time, he was giving Roy Thorne and the man's 15-year-old son, Sammy, a tour of a Wyoming, Michigan, home.
"He’s not going to buy this house now," Brown worried.
However, he said he grew less concerned with making a sale and more concerned with staying safe when he noticed a second officer "behind a tree making hand gestures."
Before the afternoon was over, police officers would order the trio out of the home and place them in handcuffs.
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Veteran ESPN journalist LZ Granderson became the latest high-profile Black talent to say goodbye to the embattled sports network when he announced his departure earlier this week.
Granderson, who has served as a senior writer, columnist and TV anchor for ESPN for the past 17 years, confirmed on Monday that he is leaving the company. The sports journalist said he planned his exit three years ago when he signed his last contract.
In his announcement post, LZ Granderson summarized his ascent at ESPN, going from the number two lead at the company’s NBA Department to heading the brand’s tennis coverage and eventually becoming number one. Despite his success at the company, he said, Granderson encountered internal barriers around his racial identity and natural hair.
“Over the next 17 years I vacillated between being tolerated and being ignored. Like for years, I had to scramble to find someone to do my locs during Wimbledon because they never hired anyone to do natural Black hair…and yes, I asked,” he wrote.
At one point, he recalled his boss telling him, “you know so much about the NBA I forget that you’re gay,” sharing he was “angry” but “kept grinding.”
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It should have been a number to celebrate: The U.S. Black unemployment rate fell a full percentage point to 8.2% in July - the biggest drop of any major racial or demographic group. But a look behind the numbers reveals a distressing reality.
Nearly 250,000 African Americans left the workforce and the total number employed fell by 12,000 - a measure that rose solidly for whites, Hispanics and Asians.
The numbers indicate the drop in the Black unemployment rate was driven not by more people finding jobs, but by a rise in the number of people setting their job searches aside.
"We still have work to do," U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Reuters on Friday. "I mean, we can't completely celebrate this day."
The share of Black people either working or looking for work, known as the labor force participation rate, also fell 0.8 point last month to 60.8%. That was a reversal of the gain in June, when the labor force participation rate for Black workers rose and exceeded that of white workers for the second time in history. White workers once again have the advantage, with a labor force participation rate of 61.6%.
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam, Black Kos Poetry Editor
I had the great fortune to meet Abbey Lincoln backstage at Yoshi's in Oakland's Jack London Square in 2004. I was a little awe-struck, not so much by her fame as a jazz great, but more because of her actions and voice over all these years for civil rights. Though her albums were prominent on our turntable growing up, it was the poetry in her songs, the poetry that gave voice to the struggle of man and woman, that we spoke about in our family. It is the same poetry I give to my grandchildren as they embark on their own journey of life.
Do we kill ourselves on purpose?
Is destruction all our own?
Are we dying for a reason?
Is our misery all our own?
Are the people suicidal?
Did we come this far to die?
Of ourselves are we to perish?
For this useless, worthless lie?
My father had a kingdom
My father wore a crown
They said he was an awful man
He tried to live it down
My father built us houses
And he kept his folks inside
His images were stolen
And his beauty was denied.
My brothers are unhappy
And my sisters they are too
And my mother cries for glory
And my father stands accused.
My father, yes my father
Was a brave and skillful man
And he led and served his people
With the magic of his hand.
My father, yes my father
His soul was sorely tried
‘Cause his images were stolen
And his beauty was denied.
Sometimes the river’s calling
And sometimes the shadows fall
That’s when he’s like a mountain
That is in master over all.
This story of my father
Is the one I tell and give
It’s the power and the glory
Of the life I make and live
My father has a kingdom
My father wears a crown
And he lives within the people
And the lives he handed down
My father has a kingdom
My father wears a crown
And through the spirit of my mother, Lord
The crown was handed down.
Well sometimes the rivers callin’
And sometimes the shadows fall
That’s when he’s like a mountain
That’s a master over all.
My father has a kingdom
My father wears a crown
And he lives within the people
And the lives he handed down
My father has a kingdom
My father wears a crown
Through the spirit of my mother, Lord
The crown was handed down
Through the spirit of my mother
The crown was handed down
Through the spirit of my mother, Lord
The crown was handed down!
-- Abbey Lincoln
"Story of My Father"
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