The Dunbar Legacy: Dr. Sterling A. Brown Lecture on Anna J. Cooper

The collection, Anna J. Cooper: A Voice from the South Audiovisual Records, contains sound and video recordings of exhibit tours, gallery talks, and lectures associated with an exhibition, Anna J. Cooper: A Voice from the South. The exhibition presented the life and times of Washington, D.C. black educator and author Anna Julia Haywood Cooper through historical documents, photographs, memorabilia, and re-creations of her home and classroom settings. It was organized by the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum and held there from February 1981 to September 1982; Louise Daniel Hutchinson served as curator. The exhibition was based on an unpublished manuscript by the late Dr. Leona Gable, Smith College; and titled after Cooper's written work, A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South.;Educator, author, and speaker Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (1858-1964) was born into slavery and educated at Saint Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute in Raleigh, North Carolina. While teaching at St. Augustine's, she married George A. C. Cooper, who died two years later. After her husband's death, Cooper moved to Washington, D.C., attended Oberlin College, taught at Wilberforce College and M Street High School, and later went on to earn her Ph.D. from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. Cooper taught Greek, Latin, geometry, and science; and created a path for African Americans to attend Ivy League schools. Although she taught and served as principal (1902-1906) of the M Street High School (now Dunbar High School) in Washington, D.C., her role and influence extended beyond its boundaries. Cooper was an advocate of human rights who lectured on a broad range of topics that affected blacks and women, including race relations, poverty, and gender inequality; a feminist of her day. She was a contributor to the District of Columbia's Colored Settlement House; served as president of Frelinghuysen University, which offered affordable liberal arts and professional courses for working African Americans; and wrote A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, the first book-length volume of black feminist analysis in the United States.;Professor, poet, and literary critic Dr. Sterling A. Brown (1901-1989) was born and raised in the Washington, D.C area. He grew up on a farm in Howard County, Maryland; and attended Waterford Oaks Elementary, Dunbar High School, Williams College in Massachusetts, and Harvard University. He married Daisy Turnbull in 1927. Brown taught at Howard University, Fisk University, Vassar College, New York University, Atlanta University, Yale University, and Virginia Theological Seminary and College in Lynchburg, Virginia. His studies and poetry focused on black history and culture of the Southern United States.;Originally named Preparatory High School for Colored Youth and later known as M Street High School, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, located in Washington, D.C., was the first black public high school in the United States. During the first half of the twentieth century, Dunbar was an academically elite public school with many of its teachers holding master and doctorate degrees. By the 1950s, the school was sending 80 percent of its students to college. During the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, Dunbar struggled to keep its prestigious reputation and high standards. As with many troubled urban public schools, Dunbar standards fell and some students struggle with basic reading and math. The Dunbar Legacy Lecture Series, which was held at the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum in the early 1980s, consisted of lectures by and about people associated with Dunbar High School.