A Voice from the South

A collection of eight essays and speeches by a teacher at the M Street High School in Washington, D.C., published in 1892 with the subtitle By a Black Woman of the South. The first half, Soprano Obligato, argues that the progress of a people depends on the education and standing of its women, and that Black women, overlooked by both the women's movement and Black male leaders, hold a vantage point no one else has. The best-known passage claims that when and where the Black woman enters, the whole race enters with her. Cooper defends higher education for women, including classical study, and criticises the racial exclusions of the white women's movement. The second half, Tutti ad Libitum, asks whether America has a race problem and answers that a nation's strength lies in balancing many groups. Later essays criticise how white novelists portray Black Americans, ask what Black Americans are worth to the nation, and discuss belief and doubt.

It is one of the earliest works of Black feminist thought, and it already states, decades early, the idea that race and gender oppressions must be understood together.