54 pages • 1-hour read
A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South
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Symbols & Motifs
Progress
Content Warning: This section discusses issues of racism and sexism.
Progress is a recurrent motif in Cooper’s analysis related to the quest for racial justice and equality. The idea becomes dubious as Cooper stresses the possibilities of the American system while noting that it has not yet achieved its foundational goals. Cooper reflects the context of her time when she proclaims the superiority of Western culture and its connection “with all that is progressive, elevating and inspiring” (6). Her analysis contradicts the certainty of this idea. She notes that the trust in the Western political system is not hinged upon the results it has brought but in “the possibilities and promise that are inherent in the system, though as yet, perhaps, far in the future” (6) She illustrates progress as a promise that has not yet been fulfilled as she states, “We have not yet reached our ideal in American civilization” (7).Therefore, the idea of progress also connects to the quest for social change. Cooper notes that “real progress is growth” and that for a society to achieve growth, people must be equal and free (14).
For Cooper, progress also relates to a social order that opposes white supremacy. Cooper views racial conflict as something progressive. She posits the idea of positive cultural conflict that results not in oppression but in balance of opposing forces: “[E]quilibrium, not repression among conflicting forces is the condition of natural harmony, of permanent progress, and of universal freedom” (95). In other words, when one group doesn’t wield repressive power over another, the social, political, and cultural differences between white people and Black people—as well as men and women—can generate progress. But for progress to be achieved, all forms of prejudice must be eliminated, or else a culture is led to destruction: “Caste and prejudice mean immobility. One race predominance means death” (95). Progress is a fluid idea, hinged upon the principle of “continual struggle.” Cooper remained optimistic and anticipated a future where the values of freedom and democracy would “ultimately mature.”
Religion
Religion, denoting both a faith and an institution, is a motif in Cooper’s analysis. Her Christian faith underlies her thinking and several of her arguments. The text demonstrates the significance of religion for Cooper as a member of the African American community as well as her own viewpoint on society. She argues that ideals of womanhood in the West derive from Christianity, as Jesus Christ with his own life and example uplifted womanhood: “The idea of the radical amelioration of womankind, reverence for woman as woman regardless of rank, wealth, or culture, was to come […] from the Gospel of Jesus Christ” (8). She suggests that the ideas of the Gospel are humanizing and reinforce equality between people. Jesus Christ uplifted humanity by setting “for woman the same code of morality, the same standard of purity, as for man” (10). However, Cooper stresses that the fundamental ideas of Christianity were not actualized because “[t]he Gospel is a germ requiring millennia for its growth and ripening” (9).
Around the idea of religion, the text also foregrounds the significance of the Christian Church for the African American community. The Black church is the oldest institution created and managed by Black people and was the center of African American religious, social, and political life. During Reconstruction, the Black church fostered several educational institutions. However, Cooper criticizes policies that reinforce gender discrimination and the exclusion of Black women from higher education. She notes that “the halting, uncertain, [she] had almost said, trimming policy of the Church in the South” was an impediment in the progress of the community (21). Cooper believed in the ability of the Church to reinforce racial uplift and suggested that it should extend its work to develop Black womanhood.
Religious faith also characterizes Cooper’s perspective on society. Her thinking emphasizes the spiritual and contrasts with the Western strands of thought like agnosticism and positivism that were prevalent in the 19th century. For Cooper, “[a]gnosticism has nothing to impart” (171). Lack of faith inhibits the will to self-develop. Faith in Jesus Christ is essential for Cooper, as it ensures the evolution of humanity and perpetual development of people’s best selves: “an optimistic vision of the human aptitude for endless expansion and perfectibility” (173).
Womanhood
The idea of womanhood is central in the text as a motif embedded in Cooper’s feminist analysis. Cooper examines womanhood in general but focuses on the uplifting of Black womanhood. To describe the significance of womanhood in society, Cooper highlights the roles of women as sisters, mothers, and wives and notes that they are responsible for the formation of the human character, including for men: “[I]t is she who must first form the man by directing the earliest impulses of his character” (12). Therefore, women have a direct influence in society and social progress through the “training of children” (12).
Cooper describes women as a humanizing and “moral force” necessary in a capitalist social order, which is based on materialism and the quest for profit: “[W]oman’s work and woman’s influence are needed as never before; needed to bring a heart power into this money getting, dollar-worshipping civilization” (77). Cooper ascribes different characteristics to men and women that at times reinforce gender roles, noting that “the man is more noble in reason, so the woman is more quick in sympathy” (36). However, her analysis on domesticity and her distinction between female and male nature are informed by the context of her time.
Simultaneously, she strongly advocates for the necessity of women’s agency in the socio-political realm. Cooper emphasizes women’s humanizing traits to reject a world of male domination in general. She emphasizes the equality between women and men, arguing that masculinity and femininity are “complements in one necessary and symmetric whole” (36), that of humanity. Ultimately, Cooper emphasizes the significance of womanhood in the racial struggle, stressing that Black womanhood is key in the progress of the African American community: “a staunch, helpful, regenerating womanhood on which, primarily, rests the foundation stones of our future as a race” (14). Black womanhood and its unique perspective of intersectional oppression can ultimately pave the way to social progress.
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