Cooper & Du Bois were the social justice warriors of their time

Kristin Marsh in the Great Lives series at The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg).

"Toward an empirically grounded critical race theory, the DuBoisian school examined the extensive institutional and interpersonal racism facing African Americans. [W. E. B.] Du Bois was a staunch supporter of liberal education for blacks at a time when whites favored the vocational education advocated by Booker T. Washington.

"Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (1858–1964) was as fully engaged in public debates surrounding racial uplift as was Du Bois. An educator herself, Cooper led the M Street High School for blacks in Washington, D.C., where she insisted on providing students with the best college preparatory curriculum available."