Fanny Jackson Coppin, a Hidden Figure
How the chains of slavery could not stop an educator’s plight.
Fanny Jackson Coppin was an American educator, missionary, and lifelong advocate who championed mainly higher education for females. She was born October 15, 1837, in Washington, D.C., and Died January 21, 1913, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Born a slave and at the age of 12 was purchased by her aunt for $125 and spent the rest of her youth in Newport, Rhode Island working as a servant for author George Henry Calvert, studying at every opportunity.
With the help of a scholarship from the African Methodist Church and financial support from her aunt, she attended Oberlin College, Ohio, the first college in the United States to accept Blacks and female students in 1860.
It was a custom at Oberlin College during the students’ junior and senior classes they had to teach the preparatory classes. Fanny Jackson Coppin was informed by the faculty that the students may rebel against her teaching and they would not force it.
Her class became very successful, there was no rebellion, as the enrollment continually increased beyond her physical capacity. She later shared that she felt she had the honor of the whole African race upon her shoulders. As a whiz in mathematics, she earned the respect of her peers, men, and women, who frequented her classes as she exhibited teaching precision.
As an educator at Oberlin College, she taught an evening course for free African Americans in reading and writing and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in 1865, and became one of only three black women, Mary Jane Patterson, and Frances Josephine Norris, to do so at that time.
Jackson Coppin was the first black teacher at the Oberlin Academy in 1865 and was the first African American woman to be appointed a school principal at the Philadelphia’s Institute for Colored Youth aka Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.
Thirty-seven years with the Institute led to her vast work on educational improvements in Philadelphia. From being a principal, she was appointed superintendent by the board of education, a first for an African American in a school district in the United States.
Her legacy and work as an educator, in 1893, Coppin was one of five African American women invited to speak at the World’s Congress of Representative Women in Chicago and she delivered a speech called “The Intellectual Progress of the Colored Women of the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation”.
As an activist, Jackson Coppin spoke at political rallies. Her activism led to her becoming the first vice president of the National Associaton of Colored Women, an advocacy organization for black women founded by Rosetta Douglas.
In 1881, she married Reverend Levi Jenkins Coppin, and this lead to her doing missionary work along with her husband as they ventured to South Africa in 1902 performing a variety of missionary work as they founded the Bethel Institue, a missionary school with self-help programs. They remained there for a decade but declining health forced her to return to Philadelphia and she died on January 21, 1913.
Today, a South Philadelphia school was renamed in her honor as a Black educator and the namesake of Coppin State University. Most renowned is Fannie Jackson Coppin, born a slave, name replaces Andrew Jackson’s, a slave supporting president, at this school, due to her pioneering efforts as a Philadelphia educator.
Currently, this South Philadelphia school educates 500 students from kindergarten to eighth grade. In keeping with their new namesake agenda, all students are given the opportunities to learn in conditions and in school buildings that reflect their values and their identities and are led to feel seen and heard.
In conclusion, long live the legacy of Fannie Jackson Coppin with the hope of producing many more Fannie Jackson Coppin. Yes, it does take a village and this is how it starts, rolls, and may it never end. Long live Fannie Jackson Coppin’s Legacy.
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