Born enslaved in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1858, Anna Julia Cooper started school at the age of nine. Nearly sixty years later, Anna received her Ph.D. in history at the age of sixty-six in 1924.

Born enslaved in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1858, Anna Julia Cooper started school at the age of nine. Nearly sixty years later, Anna received her Ph.D. in history at the age of sixty-six in 1924.

Throughout the years in between and many after her Ph.D., Anna dedicated herself to helping others thrive. She taught in schools, worked as a principal, and after her Ph.D. as a university president. 

Anna was also a staunch advocate for civil rights and women's rights, writing and giving speeches. In one speech, Anna said, "A nation's greatness is not dependent upon the things it make and uses. Things without thots [sic] are mere vulgarities. America can boast her expanse of territory, her gilded domes, her paving stones of silver dollars; but the question of deepest moment in this nation today is its span of the circle of brotherhood, the moral stature of its men and its women, the elevation at which it receives its 'vision' into the firmament of eternal truth."

Anna passed away at the age of 105 in 1964.

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Sources: Portrait taken circa 1902 - C.M. Bell, photographer. Mrs. A.J. Cooper. [between February and December 1903] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <