| The Power of a Woman |
Ms. Jarvis and others began to try to establish a national Mother’s Day by contacting businessmen, ministers, and elected officials and were successful in
1911. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made the day official. And here we are today celebrating Mother’s Day. Never underestimate the power of a woman. At the early age of nine in 1868, I received a scholarship for the newly opened Saint Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute. The school’s purpose was to educate and train teachers so they could educate former slaves and their families. While I was a student there for fourteen years, I was very bright. Actually St. Augustine’s focus and mission were on training young men for the ministry, and then to prepare ambitious men for four-year universities. Women at that time could only take the “Ladies Course,” and were not encouraged to pursue college courses. At this time as a young woman I stood up for my rights to take Latin and Greek just like the men by demonstrating my intelligence. I became labeled a “Black Feminist” even way back then! Even while I was a teen I fought against Sexism at the school. Men who were candidates for the ministries at St. Augustine’s were given special treatment,
while women were discourage from studying theology and the classics. My complaint to the principal was “the only mission open before a girl…was to marry one of those
candidates’. A boy could get all the support and encouragement and stimulus he needed, even if his heart wasn’t in the study. As I saw it a self-supporting girl had to
struggle on by teaching in the summer and working after school hours to keep up with her education expenses; still, a woman faced discouragement from seeking higher
education. This information I just shared is very important for you my dear to know. Times have change over the course of years so seek education and whatever the Lord
places on your heat to do. Now I am an educator, and author. While I was teaching I became a principal too at M. Street where I wrote my first book! It’s entitled, “A Voice from the South: By A Woman from the South”, published in 1892. My dreams for this book were the first of its kind to show how Black women were treated back then in the late 1800’s. My entire mission was to encourage a vision of self-determination through education and social uplift for African American women. The central theme was that the educational, moral, and spiritual progress of Black women would enhance and improve an entire African American community. Next, I felt it was the duty of educated and successful Black women to support their underprivileged peers in achieving their goals. My book “A Voice from the South” touches a variety of topics that relate to Black families, racism, socioeconomics and the Church. As a voice of power God has used me to attend the World’s Congress of Representative Women in 1893. I chose the “lesser limelight”, however I was one of three black women invited to address this Congress. My voice from the south has been heard at the Pan-American Congress Conference in London. Yet I have been a neglected figure in Black Women’s history. My mission was not printed on the front pages. I felt a calling within me to the “education of neglected people” by starting a night school for working people who could not attend college during the day. In my later years I started studying for my doctoral degree in the United States and my studies were stopped. My studies were on stopped because I had to adopt my ½ brother’s five grandchildren. At age 57 the judge told me “My but you are a brave woman.” I tell you all today most powerful women are! I enrolled my children in boarding school and began to finish my studies in Paris, France in the summer of 1924. My thesis was “The attitude of France on the Question of Slavery Between 1789 and 1848”. In 1925 I completed my course work, even with five children and being widow. At age sixty-five, I became the fourth Black woman in American history to earn a Doctorate of Philosophy degree. What is your excuse for not continuing your missions, dreams, education, ministries etc? I was able to live until I was 105 years young. If I was here, today, and I am, I would tell you, from my heart “You are your sister’s keeper. I believe this should be the hearty response of every man and woman of this race to look after the voiceless sister. “This is a charge for everyone who is present reading this. Can you start today looking after a sister who you may know or not know? A challenge for the men who are in a relationship with a woman can you support her in all her achievements? On every new United States passport my words say, “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.” Anna J Cooper Sometime in June of 2009, the Unites States Post Office releases a new stamp honoring Anna Julia Haywood Cooper. |