Posted
on October 15, 2015
However,
I am happy to report that Fanny Jackson had an aunt who purchased her
freedom when she was 12 years old.
Jackson then worked as a servant and
studied every chance she could get; when she was 23 years old,
Jackson enrolled in Oberlin College in Ohio. (This was the first U.S.
college to regularly admit female students, black students, and black
female students!)
Fanny
Jackson took the “gentleman's course” – which was harder that
the lady's course, I gather, with Latin and Greek and loads of
mathematics. Jackson must have done a great job, because, when she
was junior, she was chosen as one of the 40 juniors and seniors
annually hired to teach preparatory classes. However, the Faculty
told Jackson that, if the students complained about having her as a
teacher, “they did not intend to force it.”
In other words, if the students of Oberlin didn't want a young black woman as their teacher, Jackson would be out.
What
do you suppose happened? I am again happy to report that, according
to Jackson, “there was a little surprise on the faces of some when
they came into the class, and saw the teacher...” but there
was no rebellion. There were no petitions or protests; people didn't
complain, or switch classes, or leave the school.
As
a matter of fact, Jackson's class kept getting larger and larger, and
she ended up teaching two divisions. She also took on teaching an
evening course for free African Americans in reading and writing.
After
graduating from college, Jackson taught in a variety of schools and
became the first African American woman to ever become a school
principal. She married a minister named Levi Coppin, and she was a
lifelong advocate for higher education for women and for
African-American “strength and dignity.”
Fanny Jackson Coppin is now long gone (she died in 1913, age 76), but we can and should still honor her contributions.
Oh!
One more thing I am happy to report: one of Maryland's state
universities is named for Coppin!
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