Born a slave in Raleigh, North Carolina, Anna Cooper began her education at St. Augustine's Normal and Collegiate Institute. In 1881 she enrolled at Oberlin College, where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees. She taught at M Street/Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., for forty years and served as principal from 1901 to 1906. Later she studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, receiving a Ph.D. in 1925 at age sixty-seven. Cooper then returned to Washington, D.C., and served as president of Frelinghuysen University until 1940. Throughout her life, Cooper was dedicated to the fight for educational opportunity for women, which she considered key to social equality. She combined her educational work with a dedication to the struggle for female suffrage. She served in the Washington Colored Women's League and was the only female member of the American Negro Academy.

Sources:
"Descriptions of Past Exhibits: Anna J. Cooper." Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture. http://anacostia. si.edu/exhibits/past_exhibtions/Anna_J_Cooper/cooper.htm. 18 February, 2005.

Fitzpatrick, Sandra and Maria R. Goodwin. The Guide to Black Washington. Hippocrene Books: New York, 2001. Howard University Archives Net. Joellen El Bashir. May 2000. http://www.huarchivesnet.howard.edu/0005huarnet/cooper1.html. 18 February, 2005.

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