XXXII

FANNY MURIEL JACKSON COPPIN

ONE of the first colored women to graduate from a recognized college in the United States was Fanny M. Jackson Coppin, the wife of Bishop Levi J. Coppin, 30th bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. But this is her smallest claim to distinction, for hers is excellence as educator, public speaker, and for her notable achievements as a public-spirited citizen.

She was born a slave in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, late in the fourth decade of the nineteenth century. Her maternal grandfather was a Mr. Henry Orr, a free man of color; but his wife was a slave, and according to the laws of the times, their six children took the legal condition of the mother. A few years after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Mrs. Sarah Clark, her aunt, discovering that Fanny was a child of promise, saved up one hundred and seventy-five dollars and secured the girl's freedom, according to the forms of law, by paying this sum of money to the District of Columbia slaveholders, so as to incur no risk, should it be necessary to move to another community.

At fifteen she went to Newport. There began the struggle. She was not willing to depend upon her aunt. Speaking of this period she says:

"So I went to service. Oh, the hue and cry there was, when I went out to live! Even my aunt spoke of it; she had a home to offer me; but the 'slavish' element was so strong in me that I must make myself a servant. Ah, how those things cut me then! But I knew I was right, and I kept straight on.

The lady with whom I lived allowed me one hour every other afternoon to go and recite to a person whom I paid to teach me. For this I was not allowed to go out at any other time.

I remained there six years, using my seven dollars a month to pay for my instruction."

She obtained employment as maid in a very distinguished family-the Calverts of Baltimore, who were then living in Rhode Island. The home of the Calverts was the resort of all the literati of Boston-here she acquired or rather deepened that craving for education that followed her all her life. Surrounded constantly by the most refined culture, the young servant girl sought for opportunities to study. One hour each week was given her to use as she would, and it was during these driblets of time that she studied vocal and instrumental music and that she prepared herself to enter the State Normal School, then under the principalship of Dana P. Colburn, author of the wellknown series of arithmetics. Mrs. Calvert had no children and soon the ability, tact and graciousness of the young servant commended her to the mistress. When she was about to leave the Calvert service to enter the Normal School, Mrs. Calvert said to Fanny: "Will money keep you?" "No," replied Fanny, "I want to fit myself to help to educate my people." This dedication to her people's service became and remained the one purpose of her life, giving it a singular coherence and unity of aim.

It was a rare thing for a young colored woman to show such an ambition to obtain an education and to demonstrate her capacity for academic honors, as did Fanny Jackson. This was in the dark days before the Civil War when Kansas was a battle-ground between the friends of freedom and slavery, and the land was echoing the dictum of the Dred Scott Decision, that "A Negro had no right which a white man is bound to respect.' It was then that Bishop Daniel A. Payne, whose zeal for education was well known, heard of this ambitious girl and obtained

her a scholarship which enabled her to attend Oberlin College. The young student did not rely on this aid entirely, for she taught music to the children of the college professors and thus helped to pay her way through college.

When a student at Oberlin she became more and more impressed with the gravity of her chosen work. "Whenever I stood up to recite," said she, "I felt the whole responsibility of my people resting on my shoulders. My failure was my people's failure."

It was customary at Oberlin to employ members of the advanced classes to teach students in the preparatory department. While all, colored and white, were treated alike at Oberlin, yet never was a colored pupil-teacher sent to take charge of classes where all were white. We must remember too that many of the members of the classes in the preparatory department were the children of slaveholding parents. Fanny was given a class as an experiment. Said President Finney to her: "In giving you this class, Fanny, I do not hold myself responsible for the order, or that the pupils will sit under your instruction. I send you; you must make your own way." She made her way. The class was a brilliant success. The success was the more pronounced, because former white pupil-teachers had signally failed in the management of this very class. Its numbers gradually increased to one hundred young white men and women and consequently became too large for the young teacher. When President Finney proposed to divide it the students refused to leave. Visitors, those friendly as well as those opposed to the race, were in daily attendance to see this novel sight. The London Athenæum of that time mentions the event as a noteworthy fact.

The Civil War came on apace. For a time the outcome seemed doubtful. When the tide of battle turned and freedom to the bondman was seen to be inevitable, Fanny M. Jackson and Mary M. Patterson were called to the Institute for Colored Youth,

an academy of almost college grade in the city of Philadelphia, maintained by a legacy left more than a quarter of a century previously by Richard Humphreys, a Quaker. Miss Jackson received the appointment as principal of the female department, and when, four years later, in March, 1869, President Grant appointed its principal, Ebenezer D. Bassett, Minister to Haiti, the vacancy in the Institute was filled by the promotion to the head position of the once slave girl, who first saw the light of day within the borders of the District of Columbia.

For thirty-five years her career in Philadelphia was one of intense activity, acknowledged ability as educator, and distinction as a leader in every good cause for the promotion of the betterment of the colored people of her city and the country at large. No voice was more potent than hers outside of the schoolroom; no educator shaped to better advantage more youthful minds.

Among some of the things accomplished by Mrs. Coppin, aside from her class-room work as an educator, may be credited the organization of the Colored Woman's Exchange, by means of which opportunity was given for the first time, for the public exhibition of specimens of the artistic and mechanical workmanship of the colored people of Philadelphia. Many orders for supplies and work in all of the varied lines of skill exhibited were received. The "Home for Girls and Young Women," a house which gave to young women engaged in domestic service the comforts of a home, maintained for a number of years largely by her enterprise and energy, was another practical result of her many-sided activities.

But the establishment of an Industrial School as a feature of the Institute for Colored Youth, of which she was principal, may be classed, possibly, as her most important work.

As an orator she is entitled to a very high place, indeed. A contemporary, who had ample opportunity for gauging her work in this respect, says: "Her appeals in behalf of the