A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South

Content Warning: This section discusses issues of racism and sexism. The source text includes racial epithets about African Americans, biased perspectives on Eastern cultures, and biases and outdated terminology about Indigenous peoples. The guide reproduces racial epithets only in quotations.

“I would beg, however, with the Doctor’s permission, to add my plea for the Colored Girls of the South:—that large, bright, promising fatally beautiful class that stand shivering like a delicate plantlet before the fury of tempestuous elements, so full of promise and possibilities, yet so sure of destruction; often without a father to whom they dare apply the loving term, often without a stronger brother to espouse their cause and defend their honor with his life’s blood; in the midst of pitfalls and snares, waylaid by the lower classes of white men, with no shelter, no protection nearer than the great blue vault above, which half conceals and half reveals the one Care-Taker they know so little of. Oh, save them, help them, shield, train, develop, teach, inspire them! Snatch them, in God’s name, as brands from the burning! There is material in them well worth your while, the hope in germ of a staunch, helpful, regenerating womanhood on which, primarily, rests the foundation stones of our future as a race.”

The passage demonstrates the author’s main goal in writing the book: the empowerment of Black women, especially in the South. Drawing on the theme of Black Feminism and Intersectional Oppression, Cooper highlights the oppression Black women experienced both as women and as Black people, their loneliness in facing life’s struggles, and their need for protection and education. She also stresses their potential as a group—their crucial agency in the quest for justice and humanity and the survival of the whole African American community. Black womanhood is key to social progress.

“We are the heirs of a past which was not our fathers’ moulding. ‘Every man the arbiter of his own destiny’ was not true for the American Negro of the past: and it is no fault of his that he finds himself to-day the inheritor of a manhood and womanhood impoverished and debased by two centuries and more of compression and degradation. […] Now the fundamental agency under God in the regeneration, the re-training of the race, as well as the ground work and starting point of its progress upward, must be the black woman. […] Our meager and superficial results from past efforts prove their futility; and every attempt to elevate the Negro, whether undertaken by himself or through the philanthropy of others, cannot but prove abortive unless so directed as to utilize the indispensable agency of an elevated and trained womanhood.”

Cooper highlights the indelible legacy of slavery. During Reconstruction, African Americans were still traumatized by a long history of dehumanization and oppression that made the quest for self-discovery and empowerment necessary. Cooper notes that Black people must assume responsibility to uplift their own community. She stresses the necessity of organizing to achieve progress and reiterates the centrality of Black women in the quest for justice. Without the agency of Black women, the claiming of Black people’s humanity could not be achieved.