Born into slavery in North Carolina in 1858, Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was a writer, teacher, and activist who advocated for education and civil rights for African-Americans and women. Considered the “mother of Black feminism,” she earned her Bachelors’ and Master’s degrees at Oberlin College and eventually earned a doctoral degree in Paris at the age of 67. She published her first book, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, in 1892, where she called attention to the struggles of Black women and highlighted the centrality of educated Black women in the movement for civil rights. This book was also the first written by an African-American woman advocating for birth control.
An important figure in the early birth control movement, Cooper believed that in order for Black women to improve their lives and provide a better quality of living for their families, it was crucial that they had the ability to determine how many children they wanted. After receiving national attention for A Voice from the South, Cooper began giving lectures throughout the country on education, civil rights, and the status of Black women.
Watch our panel discussion on reproductive rights hosted by the Bozeman Film Celebration in March 2021. Learn more about Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and her role in the early birth control movement in Stand UP, Speak OUT: The Personal Politics of Women’s Rights, Episode 3: Reproductive Rights, to be released in February 2022.
Check out our Stand UP, Speak OUT Docuseries to learn more about women’s history.
