We are excited to announce a new addition to our collection of rare books: a first edition of A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South by Anna Julia Cooper. First published in 1892, this seminal work offers Cooper’s incisive analysis of the social, political, and educational conditions of Black Americans in the post-Reconstruction South. In addition to documenting her lived experiences and critical observations, Cooper’s text anticipates key frameworks of Black feminist thought and intersectionality—concepts that would not be formally articulated for nearly a century..
Anna Julia Cooper was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1858. Following emancipation, she earned a scholarship to attend St. Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute (now St. Augustine’s University). Cooper went on to complete both her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees at Oberlin College and, at the age of sixty-six, earned a Ph.D. from the University of Paris, becoming only the fourth African American woman to do so.
Over the course of her distinguished career, Cooper served as an educator, scholar, and unwavering advocate for women’s rights and Black liberation. Upon relocating to Washington, D.C., she taught at Washington Colored High School and helped establish the Colored Women’s League, an organization devoted to advancing the educational and social status of African American women. Cooper passed away in 1964 at the age of 105 in Washington, D.C , leaving behind a profound intellectual and activist legacy that continues to shape the study of race, gender, and power today. We are excited to have her masterpiece in our collection.
The purchase of this remarkable book was made possible by two endowments established to support the purchase of rare books and manuscripts: The Julian and Elsie Mason Endowment Fund for the Purchase of Rare Books and the Edla Holm & Robert F. Brabham, Jr. Endowment for Special Collections. We are grateful for the visionary leadership of the Masons and the Brabhams, and we send our thanks to all who have generously contributed to these funds over the years.
-- Adreonna Bennett