WOMANHOOD AND RACIAL PROGRESS

Cooper. 1886. “Womanhood” (pp. 53-71)[2]

Cooper argues that any aggregate of people, be it a civilization, a nation, or a race, can only progress as far as it elevates the status of its women. While she is certainly critical of America, Cooper notes that American progress is nonetheless real. Its developments are linked with the relatively dignified treatment of women. Cooper argues this progress is due in large part to the intertwined legacies of European feudalism and Christianity. She acknowledges that the church has contributed to women’s oppression and racial exclusion, but she nevertheless insists that Christian theology has ushered the progress of Western women (and therefore Western civilization). Building on this assessment, she argues that Black progress will be stunted so long as it does not actively seek to elevate the position of Black women. She frames race as a “total of families” and notes that women determine the character and morality of individual homes. So long as Black women are silenced, Black progress will be stunted. Cooper therefore calls for the elevation of Black women’s voices in racial struggle. She also points to Christianity as a philosophical and institutional pathway to ameliorating the suffering of Black women and their race. And, because reductions in gender and racial inequalities further national success, it goes without saying that the elevation of Black women contributes to American progress.

RACE AND THE WOMAN’S CAUSE

Cooper. 1892. “Woman versus the Indian.” (pp. 88-108)

Cooper. 1893. “Intellectual Progress of the Colored Woman in the United States Since the Emancipation Proclamation” (pp. 201-5)

Cooper doesn’t just argue that racial progress necessitates a concern for women. She also argues that women’s progress necessitates a concern for oppressed races. Cooper reminds us that women’s voices can and should orient moral ideas and “good manners” (an ethic of mutual concern and respect). She makes it clear, however, that white-centric women’s groups often fail to recognize this. They tend to assume white is universal, and Cooper cites evidence of explicit racial discrimination within these groups (a clear violation of good manners). While this is certainly concerning, she seems to be more alarmed by a problematic rhetoric of white feminism, which often pits women’s interests against the interests of other oppressed and marginalized populations. This is a logical, strategic, and ethical mistake according to Cooper. As she puts it, the “woman’s cause is the cause of the weak.” Indeed, it’s not hard to read Cooper’s “Woman versus the Indian” (a title she borrows to critique, if not mock, suffragist Anna Shaw) as a call for anti-racist feminism. Her speech on the intellectual progress of Black women extends this argument. In that piece, she calls for a comprehensive women’s cause while also making room for political projects sensitive to the specific issues and perspectives of Black women. For Cooper, universal interests and unique vantage points are complimentary, not contradictory.

AMERICANISM

Cooper. 1892. “Has America a Race Problem?” (pp. 121-33)

Cooper. 1925. “Equality of Races and the Democratic Movement” (pp. 291-8)

Cooper. 1942. “Hitler and the Negro” (pp. 262-5)

Cooper is an American optimist. This is a consistent theme in her writing, and it can be found in both the earliest text we read by her (“Womanhood” from 1886) and the latest (“Hitler and the Negro” from 1942). She goes so far as to say that Americanism is the only “-ism” worth endorsing, and she repeatedly rejects communism, anarchism, and more. For Cooper, Americanism, which she says has yet to be fully realized, is the final stage of human progress with its seemingly obvious advancements in democracy, republicanism, and free enterprise. She even praises American capital for gifting public goods, notes that American labor has rare political and economic influence, and argues that a fragmented American state is structurally immune to despotism. However, we must be careful not to translate Cooper’s optimism into blind or unwavering patriotism. She certainly recognizes the many horrors of America (e.g., slavery, Jim Crow, and lynching) as well as its many contradictions (e.g., between Christian values and caste prejudice). As such, she distinguishes between “genuine and spurious Americanism” and notes that the former is anti-racist, pro-immigration, and anti-classist (but apparently not anti-class). Genuine Americanism also doesn’t silence women’s voices and, of course, it hears the unique voices of Black women. How do we achieve this American dream of universal reciprocity? Through a liberal/Christian education, a commitment to service, and an unyielding concern for the oppressed and marginalized.

[1] Page numbers are for The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper (1998), which includes all the assigned readings for Cooper. This particular reading, along with “Womanhood,” “Woman versus the Indian” and “Has America a Race Problem?” are all chapters from Cooper’s A Voice from the South (1892).

[2] This syllabus lists a different date for “Womanhood” than the other chapters from A Voice from the South because it was initially written as a speech for the Protestant Episcopal Church at Washington, D.C. in 1886.