Anna Julia Cooper - First African American to Earn a Ph. D. at the Sorbonne

As the end of Women's History Month rapidly approaches, I thought it would be fitting to write an article about a phenomenal woman who is a major figure in the history of African Americans in Paris. Her name is Anna Julia Cooper.

Anna Julia Cooper in 1892
Photo from A. J. Cooper's book The Voice of the South
Image in public domain
In an article published in Paris on April 28, 1925, the Chicago Tribune wrote the following about her:

Mrs. Cooper won her doctorat d'universite at the Sorbonne on March 23, 1925, and she left Paris for her native city of Washington, D.C. a month later.

The subject of her thesis at the Sorbonne was: L,Attitude [sic] de la France a l'egard de l'esclavage, 1789-1848*.

*The Attitude of France Toward Slavery during the French Revolution

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1858, Cooper was the daughter of a white slaveholder and an enslaved mother. She was nine years old when she received a scholarship and began her education at Saint Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute in Raleigh. An excellent student, she went on to earn a Bachelor's degree (1884) and a Master's degree (1887) at Oberlin College.

Cooper completed courses in French literature, history, and phonetics at La Guilde Internationale in Paris during the summers of 1911-1913 and enrolled in a doctoral program at Columbia University in 1914. Her pursuit of this graduate degree was hindered by personal circumstances, but she successfully transferred her credits from Columbia and La Guilde Internationale to the Sorbonne in 1924.

Details of the story vary depending on the source consulted, but Cooper did complete her graduate work at the Sorbonne in 1925. The university shipped her diploma to the U.S. and she received it at a ceremony held at Howard University on December 29, 1925.

Anna Julia Cooper was a master educator, education administrator, writer, community activist, and advocate for women's rights. She was a lesser-known contemporary and peer of Ida Gibbs Hunt and Mary Church Terrell, both of whom also spent time in Paris.

Part of Cooper's legacy is represented by a commemorative U.S. a postage stamp:

and the inclusion of one of her quotes included at the top of pages 26 and 27 in the U.S. passport:

The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or sect, a party or a class -
it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.

Cooper died in Washington, D.C. in 1964 at the age of 105. She is buried in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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A Five-Star Review for Black Paris Profiles

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Marian Hayes
Photo courtesy of Marian Hayes

Black Paris Profiles by Monique Y. Wells, is, for a media person like me, a Press Pass to some of Paris's most prolific artists in all fields and genres. Twenty-four stories told within ninety-four pages , most sharing the same pattern—visiting Paris and fulfilling a soul's craving to return. Wells has showcased a unique mix of American Blacks experiencing what it means to go beyond the fifty states.

Extremely multi-talented, these New Millennium Blacks appear to be Renaissance people channeling the likes of da Vinci in their capacity to master skills in the fields of photography, film making, and visual arts, all the while navigating the world of French culture. Page after page, reading the lives of these expatriates is like hearing a siren's song, beckoning all to join the Soirée!

Black Paris Profiles showcases the Black American French from the view of a 40-year expatriate to a bevy of hip-hop generation young (B)arisians. Reading BPP, at times, seemed like a page from the wave of Black artists who lit up the City of Lights in the Jazz age! My hopes rose higher and higher each time I read how accessible each Black profiled is to the internet. It was refreshing to have Mrs. Wells include the questions of publishing the old standard way or going electronic and D.I.Y. One thing for sure—Black Paris Profiles has fueled my desire to return to France and this time Paris will be, like the Blacks profiled, my beck and call.

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