A Voice from the South (Schomburg Library of 19th Century Black Women Writers) (The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers) - Softcover

Cooper, Anna Julian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195063236 ISBN 13: 9780195063233

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1990

Considered one of the original texts foretelling the black feminist movement, this collection of essays, first published in 1892, offers an unparalleled view into the thought of black women writers in nineteenth-century America. A leading black spokeswoman of her time, Anna Julia Cooper came of age during a conservative wave in the black community, a time when men completely dominated African-American intellectual and political ideas. In these essays, Cooper criticizes black men for securing higher education for themselves through the ministry, while erecting roadblocks to deny women access to those same opportunities, and denounces the elitism and provinciality of the white women's movement. Passionately committed to women's independence, Cooper espoused higher education as the essential key to ending women's physical, emotional, and economic dependence on men.

Review:

An excellent book....Highly complex but not complicated. (James N. Upton, Ohio State University "A first-class series of essays that cut to the heart of the issues as much today as when it was first published.)

A very useful and thorough presentation of black woman's lives during the post-reconstruction era. (James N. Upton, Ohio State University)

So glad to have this important text available for my course. (Elizabeth Keyser, Hollins College)

A brilliant example of how to discuss together the issues of both gender and race, one of the first in US American discourse to so approach such matters. (Dr. Imafedia Okhamafe, University of Nebraska)

About the Author:

Anna Julia Cooper (1858–1964), born into slavery, received a PhD in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1924 and was the fourth African American woman to earn a doctoral degree. A prominent member of Washington DC's African American community, she was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Janet Neary is an Assistant Professor of 19th Century African American Literature at Hunter College.

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0195063236
• ISBN 13: 9780195063233
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368
• Illustrator: Washington Mary Helen