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A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South
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Themes
The Quest for Black Liberation in the Post-Reconstruction Era
Content Warning: This section discusses issues of racism and sexism.
During the post-Reconstruction period, African Americans were beginning to lose the freedom and rights they gained after emancipation. At the time of Cooper’s writing, new forms of oppression and disenfranchisement, particularly in the South, contested the liberation of Black people. Even though the text is embedded in the context of its time, it demonstrates that the struggle for racial equality is ongoing. Cooper stresses that the legacy of slavery still impacted American society and the position of Black people within it. She indicates that the South denied the laws of emancipation, noting that “Southern ideas and Southern ideals” had “domineered over the brain and sinew of [the] nation” (60). Racism persisted because Black people were enslaved and subjected to white authority for more than two centuries: “For two hundred and fifty years [the Southerner] trained to his hand a people whom he made absolutely his own, in body, mind, and sensibility” (60). Oppression of Black people became an integral part of Southern society, which resisted social change. Cooper notes that racial violence was still a threat for Black people, especially Black women, and criticizes the policies of segregation: “[T]his virulence breaks out most readily and commonly against colored persons in this country, is due of course to the fact that they are, generally speaking, weak and can be imposed upon with impunity” (55). Ultimately, Cooper stresses that African Americans’ quest for equal rights was essentially a quest for “human rights” (71). After a long history of dehumanization, African Americans were reclaiming their humanity.
Cooper’s analysis gives voice to the hopes and demands of African Americans for justice during the period. She notes that the community must be “truly enfranchised” and create their own lives anew (22). Cooper counters the ideology of white supremacy by illustrating America’s multiculturalism and its foundational principles of liberty and democracy: “Compromise and concession, liberality and toleration were the conditions of the nation’s birth and are the sine qua non of its continued existence” (97). She finds possibilities in America’s multiracial society and attempts to examine the racial conflict through a positive perspective, hinged on the idea of progress and balance. Racism and white supremacy must be rejected, as they render progress impossible and ensure the death of civilization: “The supremacy of one race—the despotism of a class or the tyranny of an individual cannot ultimately prevail on a continent held in equilibrium by such conflicting forces” (98). Thus, African Americans play a key role in the country’s sustainability as a culture. Cooper emphasizes their perseverance, their skills and forbearance as workers, and their will to advance and gain access to training and education during the Reconstruction period. She underscores the non-violent perspective of African Americans and their will to leave racial violence in the past. African Americans wanted equal rights as American citizens, the freedom “to rear and educate [their] children in peace,” and to participate in all aspects of society and culture such as in arts and sciences and as professionals in the marketplace (128).
Cooper suggests that Black liberation would also benefit the economy of the country on all levels. She illustrates that racism is a social construct, describing racial prejudice as an “association of ideas” that does not essentially connect to skin color (136). Racism is irrational, and the value of a human being can only be determined by the quality of their character. While recognizing the challenges and struggles African Americans confront, Cooper remained hopeful and believed in progress and social change. Her text illustrates that the quest for true liberation and humanity would be a continual struggle and urged Black people to empower themselves for the future.
Black Feminism and Intersectional Oppression
Cooper demonstrates her feminist viewpoint throughout the text. Her analysis is considered one of the first articulations of Black feminist thought, illuminating the context of the women’s movement in the late 19th century. Simultaneously, Cooper anticipates later feminist developments like intersectionality, a term that emerged in the late 20th century to describe the multiple forms of oppression Black women confront.
Demonstrating the scope of Black feminism, Cooper considers the position of women in general while simultaneously focusing on Black women. Cooper criticizes gender discrimination in educational institutions and vocalizes women’s demands for equality. Even though she discusses these ideas within the context of 19th-century gender roles and women’s domesticity, she rejects a society of male domination and makes the case for female agency in the socio-political realm. For Cooper, men and women are equal, and masculinity and femininity complement each other and form the human whole. The feminine and the masculine are “related not as inferior and superior, not as better and worse, not as weaker and stronger, but […] complements in one necessary and symmetric whole” (36). Men should not fear women’s empowerment, as they are necessary for “the progress of civilization” (38). Cooper stresses that the woman’s cause necessitates the equality and humanity of all, of every vulnerable or socially oppressed group or class in society.
Cooper makes the case for intersectionality, focusing on Black women and the intersection of gender, race, and class that combines forms of oppression. She notes that Black women have a unique perspective on social issues due to their status as Black and female: “The colored woman of to-day occupies, one may say, a unique position in this country. […] She is confronted by both a woman question and a race problem” (79). Instead of reinforcing the dilemma, Cooper proposes the empowerment of Black womanhood and proclaims that Black women remain devoted to racial justice while fighting against sexism.
She rejects discrimination in all its forms and demonstrates that such prejudices negate people’s humanity:
All prejudices, whether of race, sect or sex, class pride and caste distinctions are the belittling inheritance and badge of snobs and prigs. The philosophic mind sees that its own ‘rights’ are the rights of humanity (70).
Cooper criticizes sexism within the African American community and mentions that many Black men do not support Black women’s education: “I fear the majority of colored men do not yet think it worthwhile that women aspire to higher education” (45). She urges the community to protect them from sexual exploitation and racial violence and allow them to develop themselves through education: “There is material in them well worth your while, the hope in germ of a staunch, helpful, regenerating womanhood on which, primarily, rests the foundation stones of our future as a race” (14). Cooper argues for the significance of Black women in the struggle for racial equality and encourages the community to reject gender discrimination.
Cooper also addresses the issue of racial discrimination within the feminist movement. She notes that during the period, several women’s movement organizations were excluding Black women because of their race. In the equality debates of the time, womanhood was often exclusively connected to whiteness. Cooper counters that notion, as she stresses that the movement claimed “[w]oman’s full, free, and complete emancipation” (64). She stresses that women must be united, promoting an idea of sisterhood: “We need women who are so sure of their own social footing that they need not fear leaning to lend a hand to a fallen or falling sister” (18). For Cooper, the women’s movement should work toward unity, reject discrimination, and represent every vulnerable or oppressed person in society. Women are essential for social progress, and Cooper’s contention is that equal rights come when everyone facing oppression—women, Indigenous people, and Black people—is heard and given “their due consideration” (69). Ultimately, Cooper illustrates that the woman’s cause is the freedom from all forms of prejudice and the quest for humanity.
The Importance of Education in Empowering the Black Community
Cooper’s analysis in the text highlights education as one of the key requests of African Americans in their early struggle for liberation and civil rights. Education is a critical means for self-development and personal growth, participation in socio-political issues, financial autonomy, and self-determination. Black people’s long exclusion from education was a key tool for their ongoing oppression. Cooper stresses that people need training and development to flourish. She notes that education is the most important investment a society can make to develop human beings that will reinforce its progress: “Education, then, is the safest and richest investment possible to man. It pays the largest dividends and gives the grandest possible product to the world—a man” (144).
African Americans had limited social mobility, and the increasing restriction of their freedom after reconstruction was a threat to their status as citizens. Cooper recognized that “the colored man [was] relegated to the occupations of waiter and barber” if they did not excel in academic education (150). Therefore, she advocated for both technical and academic training to increase professional opportunities and economic advancement for Black people. Cooper demonstrates that education was key in the liberation of African Americans, as it would enable them to live as equal citizens. She stresses that white Southern men feared “[Black] political domination,” suggesting that Black people’s advancement would challenge white supremacy (130).
The education of Black women is central in the text, as Cooper notes that their development would empower African Americans collectively. Gender discrimination in Black schools and educational institutions during Reconstruction was an impediment to progress. Cooper urged her community to design and provide opportunities for higher education to young Black girls: “I mean let money be raised and scholarships be founded in our colleges and universities for self-supporting, worthy young women” (48). For Cooper, the education of Black women needed special consideration, as their role was key in racial progress.
African Americans’ quest for the recognition of their humanity would be impossible without the inclusion of Black women. Educated Black women are essential for the empowerment of the community: “We might as well expect to grow trees from leaves as hope to build up a civilization or a manhood without taking into consideration our women” (46). Cooper criticizes the policies of the Black ministry, a center for the advancement of Black people, for not uplifting and nurturing women’s potential, as few Black women graduated from schools during the period. Ultimately, Cooper demonstrates that Black women are necessary “forces” in the struggle for equality and that they needed encouragement and freedom for their development. Cooper urged the community to take “action” and seek empowerment.
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