A Voice from the South

by Anna Julia Cooper

At the close of the 19th century, a black woman of the South presents womanhood as a vital element in the regeneration and progress of her race.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Race, Classics, Politics, African American

193 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1892

About the author

Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (Raleigh, August 10, 1858 – February 27, 1964) was an American author, educator, speaker and one of the most prominent African-American scholars in United States history. Upon receiving her PhD in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1924, Cooper became the fourth African-American woman to earn a doctoral degree. She was also a prominent member of Washington, D.C.'s African-American community.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_J._...

Reviews

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes, I'm feeling a little fiesty, which is right now. Arguably the text to which W.E.B. DuBois responded in his Souls of Black Folk (note Cooper's text predates his, and it's not as if these scholar activists weren't in communication with each other in a myriad of ways), Cooper presents a clear argument about the whys and hows social categories matter in terms of effective activisms. Talk of racial upliftment during the late 1800s in order to demonstrate the purpose of self-actualization and full personhood (hey, she's writing this text around the same time as the Reconstruction Era, people) WITHOUT incorporating gender = a failed movement. Cooper persuasively writes a very conscious and deliberate assertion that women in all communities do indeed matter, that we do contribute to society beyond the kitchen, bedroom, and nursery, and unless we're deemed colleagues in every sense of the word, then the outcome of any movements toward social equality will be woefully skewed. Anyone who's interested in various nationalisms in the U.S. over time should read; anyone interested in U.S. Black feminisms over time should read; anyone who's interested in the women's club movements from the mid to late 19th century should read; and anyone who's invested in noting an actual trajectory of ongoing U.S. activisms to dismantle social inequalities should definitely read this text. While the bulk of my academic leanings remains 20th century and beyond, I value Cooper's text because of how she highlights underrepresented issues within communities and she's unapologetic for her standpoint.

[Nia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting ending, on belief. I'm going to hold off on rating this for a while.

Doctor Anna J. Cooper starts off by building a case that if the United States is based on christianity, then it has certain obligations, including not allowing a set of institutions based on bullying and hypocrisy to rule the country. From there she points out that these hypocritical and bullying, or 'might makes right', institutions, have taken advantage of Black labor, and kept Black people in poverty. She points out that it is a tremendous waste of potential, and also that history and context really do matter. Toward the end chapters, she is calling for the Black community to build institutions for what would later be called Negro uplift, and I love that question that she poses "who will care for our souls". I wonder if that's where W. E. B. Du Bois took the title for his book 'The Souls of Black Folk' from, as I've read somewhere that it was a response to this book by Dr Cooper. She is, of course, an extremely strong advocate for education, for understanding history, for context, and says near the end of the book that we should be using our trigonometry and physics to help our neighbors measure our fields and build up housing and businesses, banking institutions within the Black community given that that's denied to us by the dominant society. The statistics that she cites are unfortunately not very different by percentage from those cited 50 years later by Dr. King and haven't changed much to this day. She calls for the essentials of food, clothing, and shelter, and Universal education to be provided to the Black community because we have paid our debt in work, in inventiveness, and in blood in the cotton fields and on the battlefield.

Please also see the reading updates. She started off by building a case based on accepted ideas of the time, many of which are outdated, but were necessary to get her audience to listen, back then.

Leaves me saddened and angry that so little progress has been made in the century since she wrote this. As she wished for, more Black writers are finally being published, but context is still sorely lacking.

The United States can do better.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight by a key leader who is now mostly forgotten. Her text brings to the forefront the "double burden" faced by African American women post-reconstruction.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual edition: The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper: Including a Voice from the South and Other Important Essays, Papers, and Letters

If women's own happiness has been ignored or misunderstood in our country's legislating for bread winners, for rum sellers, for property holders, for the family relations, for any and all interests that touch her vitally, let her rest her plea, not on Indian inferiority, nor on Negro depravity, but on the obligation of legislators to do for her as they would have others do for them were relations reversed.

I am, in a sense, cheating in this reading. It's not the first time I've acquired a more complicated edition for the purposes of reading the most significant work contained within, but in this case, the accessory material of Cooper's bibliography is so enticing that I cannot give up the text before reading its entirety. However, I do not wish to do the reading now. As such, I will be finishing and reviewing this edition that proclaims to contain only 'A Voice from the South' and keep the more magnified edition for indulgence at a later date. In addition, it was beyond serendipity to acquire this work when I did, so unlike most lucky finds, I am loathe to give it up so soon. As such, there will eventually be duplicate reviews on my digital shelves, but if it encourages curious readers to peruse this work in whatever form they find it in, all the better. To a public grown complacent in the idea that black women do not exist outside the frame of slave narrative during the entirety of the 19th century, this a much needed boon, and I must admit that I find Cooper's mere existence as valuable as her carefully measured arguments. I rail against the myriad forces that limited such breath of dignified intellectualism to such a small sector of fame and belated influence.

Then, too, the South represented blood—not red blood, but blue blood. The difference is in the length of the stream and your distance from its source. If your own father was a pirate, a murderer, his hands are dyed in red blood, and you don't say very much about it. But if your great great great grandfather's grandfather stole and pillaged and slew, and you can prove it, your blood has become blue and you are at great pains to establish the relationship.

It's telling that, despite the truth of Cooper tackling black feminism, it's built up so much on an imagined everyman of European descent that the convolutions could be of something not grounded in black womanhood. That's not to say the arguments are bad, but they do contradict themselves at times when it comes to the decision of whether to throw other marginalized demographics under the bus, namely so-called "Orientals" and badly characterized Marxists of various degrees. I also don't understand Cooper's railing against the less deity infused ethics of agnostic atheism, though I can see how it might have allowed another amoral streak to creep into the average white man's already viciously self-serving personal code, as evident by such contemporary islamophobes in the literary record such as Hitchens and Dawkins. Other than that, there are some powerful nuggets of wisdom when it comes to humanizing black people, but so much of it is tied to such a limited sphere that it motivates me even more to eventually read the rest of the selection, just to see if those incipient ideas are ever fleshed out and rendered consistent. At this point, Cooper builds so much of her argument on putting down others in the second half of AVftS that her remark on white women's hypocrisy early on loses almost all of its force. Nevertheless, this is an extraordinarily, singularly valuable text, and so much of it cane be built off of its groundbreaking roots that one can forgive the exigent inconsistencies as a common marker of someone writing the majority of their argument in their 20s. Like many black intellectuals, she worked for a far longer period than popular history gives credit for, and I look forward to when I revisit her thinking in the rest of the extended edition.

But even here we may remark that a painter may be irreproachable in motive and as benevolent as an angel in intention, nevertheless we have a right to compare his copy with the original and point out in what respects it falls short or is overdrawn; and he should thank us for doing so.

I care not for the theoretical symmetry and impregnable logic of your moral code, I care not for the hoary respectability and traditional mysticisms of your theological institutions, I care not for the beauty and solemnity of your rituals and religious ceremonies, I care not even for the reasonableness and unimpeachable fairness of your social ethics,—if it does not turn out better, noble, truer men and women,—if it does not add to the world's stock of valuable souls,—if it does not give us a sounder, healthier, more reliable product from this great factory of men—I will have none of it.

One of these days I'll be able to close a review without dwelling on the decreasing number of reading challenge books on the docket, but it is not this day. The good news is that, in finishing this, I've officially completed one reading women challenge and also that I can start the absolutely last book in the challenge stack, which will coincidentally work towards finishing my other reading women challenge. At this point in time, I'm too fatigued to be excited about future free reading, but I do still appreciate how serendipitously this copy of AVftS appeared just when I needed it to, as well as the inherent value of a black woman publishing her words so long ago. I will have more holistic things to say when I return and read the edition in its entirety, but for now, I'm ready to move on: perhaps to all those black women who Cooper inspired.

Women should not, even by inference, or for the sake of argument, seem to disparage what is weak. For woman's cause is the cause of the weak; and when all the weak shall have received their due consideration, then woman will have her "rights," and the Indian will have his rights, and the Negro will have his rights, and all the strong will have learned at last to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly, and our fair land will have been taught the secret of universal courtesy which is after all nothing the art, the science, and the religion of regarding one's neighbor as one's self, and to do for him as we would, were conditions swapped, that he do for us.

[milena sherman]

‘𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴—𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳, 𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 "𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘭𝘺" 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦-𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥’

[KarnagesMistress]

"There is or used to be in England a system of entail by which a lot of land was fixed to a family and its posterity forever, passing always on the death of the father to his eldest son. A man may misuse or abuse, he may impoverish, mortgage, sterilize, eliminate every element of value-- but he can never sell. He may cut down every tree, burn every fence and house, abstract by careless tillage, or by no tillage, every nutritive element from the soil, encumber it to two or three times its value and destroy forever its beauty and fertility-- but he can never rid himself of it. That land with all its encumbrances and liabilities, its barrenness and squalidness, its poverty and its degradation is inexorably, inevitably, inalienably his; and like a shattered and debased personality it haunts him wherever he goes. An heir coming into an estate is thus often poorer than if he had no inheritance. He is chained to a life long possession of debt, toil, responsibility, often disgrace. Happier were it for him if he could begin life with nothing-- an isolated but free man with no capital but his possibilities, with no past and no pedigree. And so it often is when men. These bodies of ours often come to us mortgaged to their full value by the extravagance, self-indulgence, sensuality of some ancestor. Some man, generations back, has encumbered his estate for strong drink, his descendants coming into that estate have the mortgage to pay off, principal and interest. Another cut down the fences of character by debauchery and vice,-- and these have to ward off attacks of the enemy without bulwarks or embattlements. They have burnt their houses of purity and integrity, have rendered the soil poor and unproductive by extravagance and folly,-- and the children have to shiver amid the storms of passion and feed on husks till they can build for themselves a shelter and fertilize their farms. Not very valuable estates, you will say. Well, no,-- nothing to boast of, perhaps. But an energetic heir can often pay off some of the liabilities, and leave the estate to his children less involved than when he received it. At least he can arrest the work of destruction and see to it that no further encumbrances are added through his folly and mismanagement." pp. 236-7 "What are we Worth?" (This, please do not forget, was written in 1892!)
_____
For the 2015 Watauga County Public Library Reading Challenge: A book by a female author; A nonfiction book; A book at the bottom of your to-read list; A book written more than 100 years ago; A book written by an author with your initials; a book by an author you've never read before

[Arielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

2015 Reading Challenge - A book written by an author with your same initials

There are so many gems in this book. While life has changed a lot in the hundred plus years since this was published, so much is still very applicable today. Many of the same issues of White feminism and inclusivity of all women are still playing out.

[Lulu · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I speak for the colored women of the South, because it is there that the millions of Blacks in this country have watered the soil with blood and tears, and it is there that the colored woman of America has made her characteristic history and there her destiny is evolving.”

This book should be required reading for EVERYONE!!! There is so much knowledge and wisdom packed into this book.

If you’re on my Christmas list, guess what you’ll be getting for 2021! 😉

[Hannah Kersemeier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Also! Just read this for Honors. I’m sure it was revolutionary for its time and I like a lot of what AJC has to say, but it wasn’t one of my favorites from the curriculum, though I am glad to have a black female voice finally included! It felt very bare-minimum and like a lot of actual justice was compromised in order to just have a platform at all, but I also know this opinion is just a product of when and where I was raised so I also acknowledge my limitations.

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a classic. Dr. Cooper’s genius in articulating a 19th century understanding of black feminism has stood the test of time and speaks to our 21st century America.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In broad strokes, this book is quite good and worth reading. It's an early and much needed expression of black feminist thought. But when you drill down into, oh boy is it filled with some backwards thinking. Right from page one she engages in Islamophobia, which really sets the tone for the book. She'll often make some racist, reductive point about "the Orientals" only to lead to a fairly progressive conclusion about American race relations.
I do say "progressive", but stop short of radical because, overall, Cooper is a liberal. There are times we she hints at radicalism, but there are far more times where she explicits rejects or forecloses it. She thinks anarchists and communists are all just criminal trouble makers and her highest wish for black people is just that they can become cogs in the capitalist machine minus all the racism.
This liberalism is perhaps also why her insistence on standpoint epistemology is so troubling. Cooper explicitly places herself as someone able to speak not only for all black women, but all black people. She, of course, cannot, but in doing so she ends up erasing any black political thought to either the right or left of her. So while this book is vital to any genealogy of black feminist thought, it needs to be left out of any genealogy of the black radical tradition. Still, take it for what it is, a product of its time, and it's a worthwhile read with a lot of prescient points scattered throughout.

[Lizzie]

Still combing through the 500 Great Books By Women book list, which got set up as a Goodreads group, and tracking the demographics via spreadsheet (and so can yoouuu).

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing just 20 years after emancipation, Anna Julia Cooper presents the question that bell hooks and many others pick up 100 years later - what does it mean to be a feminist & be black.

[Ruth Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learned of this from Brittney Cooper’s “Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women.” Totally worth reading!

[Charles Sheard · Rating 3 out of 5]

It only earns the 3rd star because of underlying truth of her basic message: calling for the education of the women, as well as the men, to raise the race to their potential. As far as the rhetoric in which she attempts to deliver her message, however, I would only give this a tepid 2 stars. Cooper drowns much of her argument in waves of florid writing, strained and extended metaphors, and constant quotations and allusions to historical figures or writers, which seem calculated more to evince her erudition than to bolster her argument.

And in fact, much of her argument is itself reliant on weak, or unsupportable beliefs, including a heavy reliance on the christian god and religion as underpinning much of her righteousness (not unaccompanied by certain dismissive and belittling bigotries of her own, regarding muslims, Chinese, etc.). She also undermines feminism itself, and the presentation of the equality of woman, by lauding chivalry (though placing women on pedestals does not elevate them when the pedestal is furnished with chains or is an altar for sacrifice; just ask Andromeda or Iphigenia) and stating that women are not the equal of man but are a necessary counterpart to man, offering the compassion and moral sense that man apparently lacks. Continuing to present women as "different" in kind will continue to allow those in power to treat them differently.

What is most odd is that an entire century earlier (exactly, as it happens), Mary Wollstonecraft was making stronger feminist arguments based primarily upon logic and philosophy (though still tainted with religion). Alas that Cooper's many references did not include her, or Olympe de Gouges, or many other writers on the subject. It is only in the essay "What are we Worth?" that Cooper adds sufficient factual and practical elements to her arguments, for instance pointing out that trade schools are more needed by her community that attempting to force a typical classical education with Greek and Latin, in order that with skills the workers can develop sufficient wealth to have leisure time, which itself may then begin to allow for even broader education and other benefits (not to mention that the growing trade labor movements were imposing exclusionary barriers of access not just to work but the very acquisition of trade skills).

A voice raised in pursuit of a truth that is perhaps going unheard, is a valuable thing. Unfortunately, that doesn't make this book a success, where the support for that truth and the logical arguments are lacking.

[Nate Portnoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've very little to add to the grander discourse; I read this as classwork.

A rewording of the description that Goodreads includes: it's a collection of 19th century essays by black feminist Anna Julia Cooper (the first black woman to receive a PhD in America). A censure on the black intelligentsia, which was overwhelmingly masculine, and a socio-political commentary on both white and black relations to the centrally unrepresented black female vocality.

As a series of essays, it's unclear who Cooper is speaking to, and which postures she legitimately adopts. It reminded me of Uncle Tom's Cabin in the way it took up familiar tropes to communicate/educate. The main problem I have is that as a collection of essays, it's inconstant. For example, sometimes we'll find Cooper focalizing on certain binaries and trying to reinforce them (for instance, male-female), and at other times we'll find the seem to argue for the fuzzying of those binaries. She creates this weird kind of political androgyny where she'll try to simultaneously play into conventional gender and socio-political types all the while somehow unsettling them. It becomes confusing.

Don't mistake my critique as a dis-taste for the book. It is literally a century ahead as an intersectional text, and poses almost prescient arguments about womanhood and feminism and how they travel through time.

[Grace Castillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is an exploration of Black feminism and activism that has lessons that remain relevant today. Cooper's analysis made me engage with the different themes of race, gender, and power in America. Throughout the book, she centers the voices and experiences of Black women, challenging those against her and causing readers to reconsider their perspectives on education, activism, and identity within the black community. What I liked most from this book was the historical references as well as the philosophical ideas that were presented, it caused lots of reflection for me. Each chapter had new opinions and ideas to reflect on which caused an overall lasting impression when finished. "A Voice from the South" would be good for anyone interested in feminist theory, African American history, or social activism.

[Christopher Byram · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first discovered this book when it was referenced on Khan Academy, in the article 'READ: Dual Consciousness', in Unit 6, in the course 'World History Project - Origins to the Present'. The article states that the author set out to present "an intelligent and sympathetic comprehension of the interests and special needs of the Negro." She also included "the real and special influence of woman", writing, "'Tis woman's strongest vindication [defense] for speaking, that the world needs to hear her voice." In 1896 Cooper helped to found the National Association of Colored Women, whose motto—"Lift as we climb"—combined the uplift of Washington with the activism of W.E.B. DuBois.

[Carolyn Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cooper, a Black woman who earned her PhD, writes a spirited Christian defense of the Black race in America. Written in 1892, this book is profound and ahead of its time. Statements she makes in this book from over 100 years ago are still relevant today (and not just about Black people). It’s dense reading but worth the effort. Be prepared for an extensive vocabulary, generally more complex than most non-scholarly works today.

[Maryam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for one of my graduate classes, and honestly would have read it outside of class too! Reading feminist works by non-white authors is also incredible because it shows so much of what has been erased from history and Cooper's sarcastic writing makes it very digestible as well. I do think she hates on any religion taht is not Christianity a little too much but also this was written in the 1800s so makes sense.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting set of commentaries relating to race, women's issues, education, etc. I found much I agreed with easily, and quite a bit that challenged my views and compelled me to think from a different perspective. The essays are well-written and thought-provoking. Probably a book I will revisit in more depth sometime.

[Donna Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Educational Sermon

I found this book from 1892 on Prime reading. It is illuminating, thought-provoking and an outstanding piece on contemporary views on race relations, economics, feminism and a sermon of sorts that ventures into faith, religion and agnosticism.

If you are interested in history in the first person, this is a book to read.

[Kari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for my dissertation work, but I can't believe how much this speaks to our current moment. Cooper is an amazing, witty writer.

[Kalyn]

A foundational text for those interested in Black feminism and just immersing themselves in Black thought. A great read and it is pretty easy to get through.

[Meeca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

This is clearly a well-articulated, critical analysis of race and gender. It is still very relevant today. I am honored to have read this

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent book by an intelligent, well-spoken woman. Anna Julia Cooper was one of the first black feminists, and this book shows why she is so highly revered.

[Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for work on my senior thesis! This was a really interesting read that focused on some compelling themes and ideas. I'm excited to be in conversation with this work as I write my thesis!

[Sandra Oldfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some parts were beyond me due to older references but this woman was a real tour de force!

[Karen Bourklian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this for school but I really liked it and it offered great discussions. Can’t wait to write my paper on this!!

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up