This is the final day of my “28 days (Plus 1) of Black History and Culture” series. From your comments and visits, I see that it was both enlightening and educational. I hope we will consider Black history and culture as a part of – not apart from – American history.
March 1, 2022
U.S. passport bears Black woman’s 1892 call for freedom
Educator and women’s advocate Anna Julia Cooper is among the people whose names you’ll find on the U.S. passport. “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,” states her quote on pages 26 and 27.
She was included in the passport when it was redesigned in 2007. A commemorative stamp was released in her honor in 2009.
Cooper was an author, educator, public speaker and activist. She founded the Colored Women’s League of Washington (DC) in 1892 and helped start a YWCA chapter for Black women because the white organization refused to admit them. Cooper was a teacher and principal at one of the first high preparatory high schools for Black children in Washington, and spoke out often for the rights of women and African Americans both here and abroad.
Cooper wrote a book titled “A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South,” published in 1892. The passport quote is from the book, about the importance of listening to Black women and what they have to contribute to the country. Read the full story.
