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Annie Lee Wilkerson Cooper | |
|---|---|
| Born | Annie Lee Wilkerson June 2, 1910 Selma, Alabama, US |
| Died | November 24, 2010 (aged 100) Selma, Alabama, US |
| Occupation | Civil rights activist |
| Known for | Selma to Montgomery marches |
Annie Lee Wilkerson Cooper (born Annie Lee Wilkerson; June 2, 1910 – November 24, 2010) was an American civil rights activist. She is best known for punching Dallas County, Alabama Sheriff Jim Clark in the face during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.[1][2] Cooper's lasting legacy is recognized as her activism in the Selma voting rights marches and her role as a female leader in the civil rights movement.[3][4]
Annie Lee Wilkerson Cooper was born on June 2, 1910, as Annie Lee Wilkerson in Selma, Alabama as one of ten children of Lucy Jones and Charles Wilkerson Sr. When Cooper was in the seventh grade, she dropped out of school and moved to Kentucky to live with one of her older sisters, but later obtained a high school diploma.[5] At an early age, Cooper joined the local Baptist church.[6]
In the 1940s, Cooper owned a restaurant in Pennsylvania. A white man who wanted to lease part of Cooper's building asked that she segregate her seating, but she refused and revoked the sublease.[5] Her restaurant was amongst the only in town that were non-discriminatory, leading to her disapproval to sanction it based on race.[7]
In 1962, Cooper returned to Selma to care for her sick mother.[8] She later attempted to vote in Selma, but was told she failed the literacy test.[9] Upon being denied to register to vote in Alabama, Cooper began to participate in the civil rights movement.[6] Cooper's attempt to register to vote in 1963 and her encouragement of her colleagues to also register, resulted in her being fired from her job as a nurse at a rest home.[8] She then worked as a clerk at the Torch Motel after a very difficult search because of her affiliation to the Montgomery March.[10]
Annie Lee Cooper was one of the few people in Selma who became fed up with the restrictions placed on the voting rights of African Americans and was willing to do something about it. Attempting to vote five times, she was one of the few who was brave enough to hold their own against the consequences that came with their attempts to vote. She lived in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Ohio before her incident with Jim Clark arose in Selma where voting rights were still being restricted. Jim Clark, a local sheriff, was confronted by Cooper when she tried to defend a man who was attempting to register from being kicked by the police. Even though she retaliated with violence while being a part of a non-violent organization, her act later was seen as having a true "Selma Spirit."[4]
I try to be nonviolent, but I just can't say I wouldn't do the same thing all over again if they treat me brutish like they did this time.
On January 25, 1965, Cooper went to the former Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Alabama to register to vote as part of the Selma to Montgomery marches. While in line, Cooper was prodded by local sheriff Jim Clark with a baton. Cooper turned around and hit Clark in the face, knocking him to the ground. Cooper proceeded to jump on Clark until she was pulled away by other sheriffs.[11]
Cooper was then arrested and charged with criminal provocation.[5] She was held in jail for 11 hours before the sheriff's deputies dropped the charges and released her, hastened to protect her from being attacked by Clark upon his return to prison.[12] Cooper spent the period of her incarceration singing spirituals.[13] Some in the sheriff's department wanted to charge her with attempted murder, and she was let go.[14] Following this incident, Cooper became a registered voter in Alabama.[5]
Annie Lee Cooper played a monumental role in the lead up to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After her incident with Jim Clark, she was immediately recognized for her courage. Black people throughout Selma celebrated Cooper's ability to advocate for herself and fight for her vote. Her incident, as well as Bloody Sunday, which occurred six weeks after Cooper's encounter with Clark, were critical steps in passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which created mechanisms to prevent racial voter suppression.[12]
Though considered a key player in the voting rights movement, her efforts were often relegated to the background because of her gender. She was very misrepresented in the media, especially newspapers, who often presented her as an "aggressor." Some popular headlines in newspapers such as the Lodi News Sentinel would be "Selma Sheriff Slugged by Hefty Negro Woman."[3]
On June 2, 2010, Annie Lee Cooper became a centenarian. Reflecting on her longevity, she stated, "My mother lived to be 106, so maybe I can live that long, too."[5] On November 24, 2010, Cooper died of natural causes in the Vaughan Regional Medical Center in Selma, Alabama.[14]
In modern media, such as the 2014 film Selma, more light is shone on Annie Lee Cooper and her influential role as a woman during the civil rights movement.[3] In contrast to media that has been published in the past about Cooper, which displays her as the initial attacker of Jim Clark, this film works to accurately depict her legacy and displays her as a hero and promoter of equality. This film offers an alternative perspective of her encounter with Clark and serves to better reflect Cooper and her fight for voting rights in the midst of the civil rights movement.[4] In the film, Cooper was portrayed by Oprah Winfrey.[15] Winfrey said that she took the role "because of the magnificence of Annie Lee Cooper and what her courage meant to an entire movement."[16]
In the movie, Annie Lee Cooper is shown to be a key player in the civil rights movement but was still not able to capture her full experience with the movement. Even though she had representation in the film, it did not shed light on the issues she was trying to solve with the movement but mostly her incident with Jim Clark. The film also highlighted not only the struggles and success of Annie Lee Cooper, but of other Black women such as Coretta Scott King, Diane Nash and Amelia Boynton Robinson who played very important roles in the civil rights movement.
A street near Cooper's home was renamed in her honor.[11]
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Annie Lee Wilkerson Cooper (born Annie Lee Wilkerson; June 2, 1910 – November 24, 2010) was an American civil rights activist. She is best known for punching Dallas County, Alabama Sheriff Jim Clark in the face during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. Cooper's lasting legacy is recognized as her activism in the Selma voting rights marches and her role as a female leader in the civil rights movement.
The Dallas County Voters League (DCVL) was a local organization in Dallas County, Alabama, which contains the city of Selma, that sought to register black voters during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The organization was founded in the 1920s by Charles J. Adams, a postal service employee and civil rights organizer who was also the local representative of the NAACP. After he moved to Detroit, he was replaced by Sam Boynton, the husband of Amelia Boynton. The DCVL was later revived by an eight-member steering committee, known as the "Courageous Eight,": Amelia Boynton, Ulysses S. Blackmon, James E. Gildersleeve, Frederick D. Reese, Rev. John D. Hunter, Rev. Henry Shannon, Earnest Doyle, and Marie Foster. These members tried to register black citizens during the late 1950s and early 1960s, but their efforts were blocked by state and local officials, the White Citizens' Council, and the Ku Klux Klan. In 1962, Frederick D. Reese was elected president of DCVL. Bernard Lafayette, along with his wife Colia Liddel Lafayette, was sent to Selma by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to campaign for the registration of black voters in the area in February 1963. He met the representatives of the DCVL, who impressed him so much that he recommended the organization to be funded. In July 1963, demonstrations and sit-ins were being coordinated by the SNCC and the DCVL. On October 7, 1963, one of two days during the month when residents were allowed to go to the courthouse to apply to register to vote, the SNCC and the DCVL mobilized more than 300 blacks from Dallas County to line up at the voter registration office in what was called a "Freedom Day". Even when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, legally ending the practice of segregation, they still found difficulty in getting any black voters registered. At the time, only 2.2 percent of African-Americans were registered to vote in Dallas County, though even this figure owed largely to the continuous work of the DCVL. In late 1964, they received the help of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Martin Luther King Jr. In 1965, the organization worked in collaboration with the SNCC and the SCLC to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches. After SCLC and King launched the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Campaign on January 2, 1965, schoolteacher Frederick Reese, also president of the DCVL, convinced his fellow teachers to join an attempt to register to vote in mass. They made three attempts on January 22 to climb the steps of the county courthouse and were beaten back each time. Since previous attempts to register had been made largely by blue-collar workers and students, this marked the first attempt in Dallas County by local educated blacks to register in large numbers. The first march from Selma to Montgomery was attempted on March 7, 1965. Bloody Sunday was initiated by SCLC member James Bevel, and organized by Bevel, Amelia Boynton, and others. When the marchers crossed the bridge they were attacked by deputies of the county sheriff Jim Clark and Alabama State Troopers, and Amelia Boynton was beaten and left unconscious in the street. The picture of her unconscious figure was widely publicized and helped fuel outrage at the treatment of the marchers. Other members of the DCVL were Annie Lee Cooper, Louis Lloyd Anderson (pastor of Tabernacle Church), and J. L. Chestnut. Gildersleeve was also the president of DCVL.
Selma is a 2014 historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb. It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches which were initiated and directed by James Bevel and led by Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, and John Lewis. The film stars David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Tim Roth as George Wallace, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, Common as James Bevel, with Giovanni Ribisi as Lee C. White, Alessandro Nivola as John Doar, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Fred Gray and Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper. Selma premiered at the American Film Institute Festival on November 11, 2014, began a limited US release on December 25, 2014, and expanded into wide theatrical release on January 9, 2015, two months before the 50th anniversary of the march. The film was re-released on March 20, 2015, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the historical march. The film was nominated for Best Picture and won Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards. It also received four Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Actor, and won for Best Original Song.
Ann, Anne or Annie Cooper may refer to:
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
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