Annie Lee Cooper
Annie Lee Wilkerson Cooper | |
---|---|
Born | Annie Lee Wilkerson (1910-06-02)June 2, 1910 Selma, Alabama, US |
Died | November 24, 2010(2010-11-24) (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 African-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]
Life and work
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.[3] At an early age, Cooper joined the local Baptist church.[4]
In the 1940s, Cooper owned a restaurant. A white man who wanted to lease part of Cooper's building asked that she segregate her seating, but she refused.[3]
In 1962, Cooper returned to Selma to care for her sick mother.[5] She later attempted to vote in Selma, but was told she failed the literacy test.[6] Upon being denied to register to vote in Alabama, Cooper began to participate in the civil rights movement.[4] Cooper's attempt to register to vote in 1963 resulted in her being fired from her job as a nurse at a rest home.[5] She then worked as a clerk at the Torch Motel.
Incident with Jim Clark
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.
—Annie Lee Cooper[5]
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.[7]
Cooper was then arrested and charged with criminal provocation.[3] She was held in jail for 11 hours before the sheriff's deputies dropped the charges and released her.[7] Cooper spent the period of her incarceration singing spirituals.[8] Some in the sheriff's department wanted to charge her with attempted murder, and she was let go.[9] Following this incident, Cooper became a registered voter in Alabama.[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."[3] On November 24, 2010, Cooper died of natural causes in the Vaughan Regional Medical Center in Selma, Alabama.[9]
In popular culture
In the 2014 film Selma, Cooper was portrayed by Oprah Winfrey.[10] Winfrey said that she took the role "because of the magnificence of Annie Lee Cooper and what her courage meant to an entire movement."[11]
A street near Cooper's home was renamed in her honor.[7]
External links
- SNCC Digital Gateway: Annie Lee Cooper is a documentary website about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University.
References
- ^ Gautreau, Abigail (2021), Meringolo, Denise D. (ed.), "What Happens Next?: Institutionalizing Grassroots Success in Selma, Alabama", Radical Roots, Public History and a Tradition of Social Justice Activism, Amherst College Press, pp. 541–554, doi:10.3998/mpub.12366495, ISBN 978-1-943208-20-3, JSTOR 10.3998/mpub.12366495
- ^ Mingo, AnneMarie (2021-10-15). "Black and Blue: Black Women, 'Law and Order,' and the Church's Silence on Police Violence". Religions. 12 (10): 886. doi:10.3390/rel12100886. ISSN 2077-1444.
- ^ a b c d e "Woman known for run-in with sheriff turns 100 today". Montgomery Advertiser. June 2, 2010. Archived from the original on November 7, 2014. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
- ^ a b "Annie L. Cooper Huff Obituary". Selma Times-Journal. December 3, 2010.
- ^ a b c Britton, John H. (February 11, 1965). "Selma Woman's Girdle a Big". Jet Magazine. pp. 6–8. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
- ^ "Annie Lee Cooper". SNCC Digital Gateway. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
- ^ a b c "The Black Woman Who Punched Out Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (24): 34. 1999. ISSN 1077-3711. JSTOR 2999058.
- ^ May, Gary (2013). Bending Toward Justice : the Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-05073-4. OCLC 830163282.
- ^ a b "Annie Lee Cooper, civil rights legend, dies". Selma Times-Journal. November 24, 2010. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
- ^ Rivera, Zayda (20 June 2014). "Oprah Winfrey to play Annie Lee Cooper in civil rights drama 'Selma'". New York Daily News. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
- ^ Marc Malkin (December 30, 2014). "Oprah Winfrey Opens Up About Her Violent Scene in Selma". E! Online.
- v
- t
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(timeline)
groups
- Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
- Atlanta Student Movement
- Black Panther Party
- Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
- Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
- Committee for Freedom Now
- Committee on Appeal for Human Rights
- Council for United Civil Rights Leadership
- Council of Federated Organizations
- Dallas County Voters League
- Deacons for Defense and Justice
- Georgia Council on Human Relations
- Highlander Folk School
- Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Lowndes County Freedom Organization
- Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
- Montgomery Improvement Association
- NAACP
- Nashville Student Movement
- Nation of Islam
- Northern Student Movement
- National Council of Negro Women
- National Urban League
- Operation Breadbasket
- Regional Council of Negro Leadership
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
- Southern Regional Council
- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- The Freedom Singers
- United Auto Workers (UAW)
- Wednesdays in Mississippi
- Women's Political Council
- Ralph Abernathy
- Victoria Gray Adams
- Zev Aelony
- Mathew Ahmann
- Muhammad Ali
- William G. Anderson
- Gwendolyn Armstrong
- Arnold Aronson
- Ella Baker
- James Baldwin
- Marion Barry
- Daisy Bates
- Harry Belafonte
- James Bevel
- Claude Black
- Gloria Blackwell
- Randolph Blackwell
- Unita Blackwell
- Ezell Blair Jr.
- Joanne Bland
- Julian Bond
- Joseph E. Boone
- William Holmes Borders
- Amelia Boynton
- Bruce Boynton
- Raylawni Branch
- Stanley Branche
- Ruby Bridges
- Aurelia Browder
- H. Rap Brown
- Ralph Bunche
- Guy Carawan
- Stokely Carmichael
- Johnnie Carr
- James Chaney
- J. L. Chestnut
- Shirley Chisholm
- Colia Lafayette Clark
- Ramsey Clark
- Septima Clark
- Xernona Clayton
- Eldridge Cleaver
- Kathleen Cleaver
- Charles E. Cobb Jr.
- Annie Lee Cooper
- Dorothy Cotton
- Claudette Colvin
- Vernon Dahmer
- Jonathan Daniels
- Abraham Lincoln Davis
- Angela Davis
- Joseph DeLaine
- Dave Dennis
- Annie Devine
- Patricia Stephens Due
- Joseph Ellwanger
- Charles Evers
- Medgar Evers
- Myrlie Evers-Williams
- Chuck Fager
- James Farmer
- Walter Fauntroy
- James Forman
- Marie Foster
- Golden Frinks
- Andrew Goodman
- Robert Graetz
- Fred Gray
- Jack Greenberg
- Dick Gregory
- Lawrence Guyot
- Prathia Hall
- Fannie Lou Hamer
- Fred Hampton
- William E. Harbour
- Vincent Harding
- Dorothy Height
- Audrey Faye Hendricks
- Lola Hendricks
- Aaron Henry
- Oliver Hill
- Donald L. Hollowell
- James Hood
- Myles Horton
- Zilphia Horton
- T. R. M. Howard
- Ruby Hurley
- Cecil Ivory
- Jesse Jackson
- Jimmie Lee Jackson
- Richie Jean Jackson
- T. J. Jemison
- Esau Jenkins
- Barbara Rose Johns
- Vernon Johns
- Frank Minis Johnson
- Clarence Jones
- J. Charles Jones
- Matthew Jones
- Vernon Jordan
- Tom Kahn
- Clyde Kennard
- A. D. King
- C.B. King
- Coretta Scott King
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Martin Luther King Sr.
- Bernard Lafayette
- James Lawson
- Bernard Lee
- Sanford R. Leigh
- Jim Letherer
- Stanley Levison
- John Lewis
- Viola Liuzzo
- Z. Alexander Looby
- Joseph Lowery
- Clara Luper
- Danny Lyon
- Malcolm X
- Mae Mallory
- Vivian Malone
- Bob Mants
- Thurgood Marshall
- Benjamin Mays
- Franklin McCain
- Charles McDew
- Ralph McGill
- Floyd McKissick
- Joseph McNeil
- James Meredith
- William Ming
- Jack Minnis
- Amzie Moore
- Cecil B. Moore
- Douglas E. Moore
- Harriette Moore
- Harry T. Moore
- Queen Mother Moore
- William Lewis Moore
- Irene Morgan
- Bob Moses
- William Moyer
- Elijah Muhammad
- Diane Nash
- Charles Neblett
- Huey P. Newton
- Edgar Nixon
- Jack O'Dell
- James Orange
- Rosa Parks
- James Peck
- Charles Person
- Homer Plessy
- Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
- Fay Bellamy Powell
- Rodney N. Powell
- Al Raby
- Lincoln Ragsdale
- A. Philip Randolph
- George Raymond
- George Raymond Jr.
- Bernice Johnson Reagon
- Cordell Reagon
- James Reeb
- Frederick D. Reese
- Walter Reuther
- Gloria Richardson
- David Richmond
- Bernice Robinson
- Jo Ann Robinson
- Angela Russell
- Bayard Rustin
- Bernie Sanders
- Michael Schwerner
- Bobby Seale
- Cleveland Sellers
- Charles Sherrod
- Alexander D. Shimkin
- Fred Shuttlesworth
- Modjeska Monteith Simkins
- Glenn E. Smiley
- A. Maceo Smith
- Kelly Miller Smith
- Mary Louise Smith
- Maxine Smith
- Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
- Charles Kenzie Steele
- Hank Thomas
- Dorothy Tillman
- A. P. Tureaud
- Hartman Turnbow
- Albert Turner
- C. T. Vivian
- Wyatt Tee Walker
- Hollis Watkins
- Walter Francis White
- Roy Wilkins
- Hosea Williams
- Kale Williams
- Robert F. Williams
- Andrew Young
- Whitney Young
- Sammy Younge Jr.
- Bob Zellner
- James Zwerg
songs
- "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
- "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus"
- "Kumbaya"
- "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
- "Oh, Freedom"
- "This Little Light of Mine"
- "We Shall Not Be Moved"
- "We Shall Overcome"
- "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"
- Jim Crow laws
- Lynching in the United States
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- Buchanan v. Warley
- Hocutt v. Wilson
- Sweatt v. Painter
- Hernandez v. Texas
- Loving v. Virginia
- African-American women in the movement
- Jews in the civil rights movement
- Fifth Circuit Four
- 16th Street Baptist Church
- Kelly Ingram Park
- A.G. Gaston Motel
- Bethel Baptist Church
- Brown Chapel
- Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
- Holt Street Baptist Church
- Edmund Pettus Bridge
- March on Washington Movement
- African-American churches attacked
- List of lynching victims in the United States
- Freedom Schools
- Freedom songs
- Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
- "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
- Voter Education Project
- 1960s counterculture
- African American founding fathers of the United States
- Eyes on the Prize
- In popular culture
- Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
- Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
- Civil Rights Memorial
- Civil Rights Movement Archive
- Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
- Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
- Freedom Rides Museum
- Freedom Riders National Monument
- King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
- Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
- National Civil Rights Museum
- National Voting Rights Museum
- St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
historians