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Anna Julia Cooper

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Educator

The Resume

    (August 10, 1858-February 27, 1964)
    Born in Raleigh, North Carolina
    Birth name was Anna Julia Haywood
    Author, educator, sociologist, speaker, and civil rights activist
    Wrote ‘A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South’ (1892)
    Founded the Colored Women's League with Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell (1892)
    President of Frelinghuysen University (1930-40)

Why she might be annoying:

    She claimed women made for better teachers because the violent natures of men often run counter to the goals of higher education.
    She took W.E.B. Du Bois’ side over Booker T. Washington’s in their debate over black education, and left her post at the M Street School as a result.
    She publicly complained about Nancy Green (the original Aunt Jemima) and the World's Largest Flour Barrel being near her building at the 1893 World’s Fair.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was born into slavery.
    She was widowed when she was twenty-one.
    ’Voice of the South’ is widely seen as one of the first articulations of intersectionality.
    She has been called ‘the Mother of Black Feminism.’
    She was the fourth African-American woman to receive a PhD.
    The Anna Julia Cooper Center at Wake Forest University was established in her honor.
    Her quote ‘The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class – it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity’ has been printed in copies of the United States Passport.
    She lived well past the ripe age of 100.

Credit: BoyWithTheGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying