Anna "Annie" Julia Cooper nee Haywood was born enslaved in  Raleigh, North Carolina , in 1858. From such humble beginnings she rose to accomplished heights too numerous to account for in a simple blog post. Here are the highlights of her career. source In 1868, when Cooper was nine years old, she received a scholarship and began her education at the newly opened  Saint Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute  in Raleigh eschewing the educational  track reserved for women, Cooper fought for her right to take courses reserved for men, by demonstrating her scholastic ability. Upon graduation, she became an instructor at Saint Augustine in 1883. She went on to attend the college level program (male student track again) and graduate from in 1884 Oberlin College in Ohio. Cooper taught there before moving to Washington DC to teach latin and later become principle of the M Street High School. Cooper advocated for the classical education model for blacks as champio...