A Voice from the South

Title page of A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South, 1892

A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South is the first book by American author, educator, and activist Anna J. Cooper. First published in 1892, the book is widely viewed as one of the first articulations of Black feminism.^[1]

Overview[]

A Voice from the South compiles a series of essays that touched on a variety of topics, such as race and racism, gender, the socioeconomic realities of Black families, and the administration of the Episcopal Church.

The book advanced a vision of self-determination through education and social uplift for African-American women. Its central thesis was that the educational, moral, and spiritual progress of Black women would improve the general standing of the entire African-American community. She says that the violent natures of men often run counter to the goals of higher education, so it is important to foster more female intellectuals because they will bring more elegance to education.^[2] She noted Black women whose accomplishments could rival those of men, including Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Fanny Jackson Coppin, and Edmonia Lewis.^[3] Cooper advanced the view that it was the duty of educated and successful Black women to support their underprivileged peers in achieving their goals.

This view was criticized by some as submissive to the 19th-century cult of true womanhood, but others label it as one of the most important arguments for Black feminism in the 19th century.^[4]

A Voice from the South was published during a period that saw a burst of intellectual publications by black women. Cooper's book was published the same year as Lucy Delaney's From the Darkness Cometh the Light; or, Struggles for Freedom, Ida B. Wells's Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's Iola Leroy; or, Shadows Uplifted.^[5]

References[]

^ Busby, Margaret, "Anna J. Cooper", Daughters of Africa, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, p. 136.
^ Ritchie, Joy; Kate Ronald (2001). Available Means: An Anthology of Women's Rhetoric(s). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 163–164. ISBN 978-0-8229-5753-9.
^ Morse, Heidi. "Roman Studios: The Black Woman Artist in the Eternal City, from Edmonia Lewis to Carrie Mae Weems" in Classicisms in the Black Atlantic, edited by Ian Moyer, Adam Lecznar, and Heidi Morse. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2020: 142. ISBN 978-0-19-881412-2
^ Ritchie, Joy; Kate Ronald (2001). Available Means: An Anthology of Women's Rhetoric(s). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 163–164. ISBN 978-0-8229-5753-9.
^ May, Vivian M. Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist. New York: Routledge, 2012: 20. ISBN 978-0-415-95642-0

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[1] Busby, Margaret, "Anna J. Cooper", Daughters of Africa, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, p. 136.

[Ritchie-2] Ritchie, Joy; Kate Ronald (2001). Available Means: An Anthology of Women's Rhetoric(s). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 163–164. ISBN 978-0-8229-5753-9.

[3] Morse, Heidi. "Roman Studios: The Black Woman Artist in the Eternal City, from Edmonia Lewis to Carrie Mae Weems" in Classicisms in the Black Atlantic, edited by Ian Moyer, Adam Lecznar, and Heidi Morse. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2020: 142. ISBN 978-0-19-881412-2

[4] Ritchie, Joy; Kate Ronald (2001). Available Means: An Anthology of Women's Rhetoric(s). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 163–164. ISBN 978-0-8229-5753-9.

[5] May, Vivian M. Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist. New York: Routledge, 2012: 20. ISBN 978-0-415-95642-0

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