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(WOMEN.) COOPER, ANNA JULIA.
Autograph Letter Signed to The
President and Trustees of Howard University regarding the editing and
publication of Charlotte Forten Grimke’s writings.
Single large 4to, leaf on
Freelinghuysen University stationery.With other related material.
SHOULD BE SEEN
.
Washington, May 5, 1944
[1,000/1,500]
A RARE AND IMPORTANT LETTER WITH EXCELLENT FEMINIST CONTENT
,
FROM THE
WOMAN HONORED ON THE UNITED STATES POSTAGE STAMP IN
2009.
Anna Julia
Cooper (1858-1964), educator, writer, and activist, was born a slave in North Carolina.
Cooper lived long enough to have been born a slave and witness the signing of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. She was famous for saying, “only the BLACKWOMAN can say when
and where I enter, the whole Negro race enters with me.’” Serving on the executive committee
of the Pan-African Conference in London, Cooper was a tireless advocate for women’s rights.
Her letter to the Trustees of Howard University discusses the fact that the Reverend Francis
Grimke had entrusted her with the job of editing his wife Charlotte Forten Grimke’s diaries.
However, the diaries (five volumes, in all) wound up in several different places. Here Ms.
Cooper asks Howard University to please release them to her. A letter from Ray Billington
at Smith College, dated four days before Cooper’s letter, states that he is “sending under
separate cover the fourth and fifth volumes of Charlotte Forten’s diaries.” Also included are
a carbon copy of a letter written by Billington to Cooper later in the year, as well as another
to Rayford Logan at Howard University. Accompanied by several pieces of related material,
including carbon copies of letters to Cooper from Ray Billington, professor at Smith College
in Northampton, Massachusetts, and others regarding the publishing of the volumes of the
Diaries of Charlotte Forten Grimke.