From marching with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma to socking a racist cop for trying to keep her from the polls, Annie Lee Cooper fought for the rights of Black Americans with ferocity.
Danny Lyon / FacebookIn 1965 , Annie Lee Cooper participated in the march for ignominious voting right in Selma — and decked a copper for trying to keep her from the ballot box .
The 1965 civil rights March on Selma is look at one of Martin Luther King Jr. ’s crowning moments in building racial equality . He was accompanied by Annie Lee Cooper , without whose industrious efforts many Black Americans might not have the right to vote today .
In January 1965 , Annie Lee Cooper lined up to vote outside the Dallas County courthouse in Selma and was hook by a police officer attempting to preclude her from fulfilling her civic tariff . After the ship’s officer poked her in the cervix with his baton , Cooper notoriously punch him square in the face .
Danny Lyon/FacebookIn 1965, Annie Lee Cooper participated in the march for Black voting rights in Selma — and decked a cop for trying to keep her from the ballot box.
Though she has been largely leave out of the average American schoolroom , Cooper enjoyed a bit of popularity when her history was impart to the great CRT screen in the Academy Award - winning 2014 filmSelma . The film debuted just four years after her destruction at the years of 100 , and none other than Oprah Winfrey bring in her story to life .
This is the dead on target story of Annie Lee Cooper , the militant , radical , and voting right recommend time almost forgot .
Annie Lee Cooper’s Childhood In Jim Crow America
Getty ImagesBlack Americans , led by Reverend Martin Luther King , Jr. , air up in front of the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma , Alabama to show to vote , 1965 .
BornAnnie Lee Wilkerson in Selma , Alabama , Cooper was one of 10 children gestate to Lucy Jones and Charles Wilkerson Sr . on June 2 , 1910 . Cooper fit to shoal up to then 7th grade but then dropped out in order of magnitude to live with one of her sisters in Kentucky , then she by and by moved to Pennsylvania .
Cooper was born during a precarious time in American chronicle . In 1901 , the newly - ratify Alabama constitution made it out of the question for bootleg men and women , irrespective of their economic status , to vote .
Getty ImagesBlack Americans, led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., line up in front of the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Alabama to register to vote, 1965.
Today , jurisprudence scholars unanimously correspond that this constitution ’s exclusive purpose was to codify white supremacy in the body politic . But back then , Alabamians — snowy one , anyway — accepted its terms wholesale .
While Coopergrew upin a DoS where Black hands and cleaning woman were n’t permitted to vote , she learned there were DoS where they could . This disparity spark off a fire in Cooper , who made her missionary post to get to the balloting box .
Becoming A Civil Rights Activist
Wikimedia CommonsCivil rightfield leader Ralph Abernathy ( depart , behind priest ) , his children , as well as Mr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr. ( behind children ) go the Selma to Montgomery civil right butt through Alabama in March 1965 .
In 1962 , Annie Lee Cooper returned to Selma , Alabama , to care for her ailing female parent . But when she got there , she realized that Black men and women were still being deny the right hand to vote .
Around the same meter , American civil right wing activist Bernard Lafayette and his wife , Colia Liddell , get in Alabama to organise Black men and women to petition for voting right . The newlyweds were in town on behalf of the Student Non - Violent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) , and the organization immediately appealed to youthful Cooper .
Wikimedia CommonsCivil rights leader Ralph Abernathy (left, behind priest), his children, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr. (behind children) lead the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march through Alabama in March 1965.
Cooper would often recite the story of how she would be required to take a “ ballot test , ” an impossible to pass literacy exam that was a leftover of the Jim Crow era , in purchase order to register to vote in Alabama . But each meter she took the test , she betray , just as the arrangement intended .
“ Once I stood in pipeline from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. , but never got to register , ” she say .
So in 1963 , armed with the activistic experience she ’d gained from form with the Dallas County Voter ’s League , Annie Lee Cooper join up with the SNCC . When her 24-hour interval caper found out about her new activism , they fuel her .
Bettmann/CORBISOfficer Jim Clark denies Black voter C.T. Vivian access to the polls on Feb. 5, 1965, in Selma.
undiscouraged , Cooper get another job as a clerk at a motel . She then became an prescribed part of the burgeoning civil rightfield movement . Defined by non - violent protest and peaceful marching , the movement was constitute in heavy part to oppose against the perils of white supremacy in the American South .
And it was here in January 1965 that Annie Lee Cooperbecame an indelible partof American chronicle when she once again endeavor to read to vote in Selma , Alabama .
But when she got to the balloting station , white Sheriff Jim Clark stop her . It would turn out to be one of the biggest mistakes of the Sheriff ’s vocation .
APAnnie Lee Cooper being arrested after socking Sheriff Jim Clark in the face.
Punching Sheriff Jim Clark
Bettmann / CORBISOfficer Jim Clark denies ignominious voter C.T. Vivian access to the poll on Feb. 5 , 1965 , in Selma .
As the Sheriff of Dallas County , Alabama , James Gardner Clark Jr. had earned a reputation as a crimson gentleman . He recruited the Ku Klux Klanto keep Black Alabamians out from the vote booths , violently perplex and arrested non - crimson protestors , and even used oxen prodding to stab Black citizens .
WhenThe Washington Postpublished photos of Clark beating polite rights activist Amelia Boynton , he was recommend for “ publicity service rendered . ”
Selma Times JournalCooper lived to be 100, and a street in Selma was named in her honor.
Clark ’s behavior was so queasy that when he ultimately die in 2007,The Washington Post‘s obituary on him all but celebrate his demise . “ Mr. Clark seemed to relish confrontation,”the article translate . “He hit at least one organizer , C.T. Vivian , in the face , though he later say he did not call back doing so until an ex - ray test present he had a linear cracking in a finger on his left hand . ”
But Clark get a penchant of his own practice of medicine when he poked at Cooper ’s neck with his billy club in January 1965 , presumptively as a precursor to something worse . Cooper responded by giving him what is affectionately known today as a “ two - piece and a cooky . ”
APAnnie Lee Cooper being arrested after whap Sheriff Jim Clark in the face .
“ I was just stand up there when his deputy sheriff narrate a man with us to move , and when he did n’t , they adjudicate to kick him , ” she remembered . “ That ’s when ( Clark ) and I got into it . I seek to be nonviolent but I just ca n’t say I would n’t do the same thing all over again if they treat me brutish like they did this time . ”
Cooper was arrested , presumptively as a matter of law , for clocking Sheriff Clark . But when Clark threatened to outfox her while she was behind bars , she was almost like a shot unblock .
Her showdown was not in sleeveless . before long afterward , follow the tireless work of Cooper , her contemporary , and Martin Luther King Jr. , the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed .
Annie Lee Cooper’s Death At 100
Selma Times JournalCooper lived to be 100 , and a street in Selma was named in her award .
In her late years , Cooper settle into a very quiet and sedate life in Selma where her community respect her contribution to the civil rights movement by naming a street Annie Cooper Avenue on her 100th birthday .
According to her family , Cooperhoped to live much longer , recalling how her beloved female parent lived to be 106 .
Unfortunately , Annie Lee Cooper go on Nov. 24 , 2010 , at the Vaughan Regional Medical Center in Selma , Alabama . She did n’t exist too far past her 100th birthday , but her Saint Mark on American account would never be forgotten .
After reading the inspiring history of Annie Lee Cooper , learn about intersectional women’s rightist and civil rights activistIda B. Wells . Then , learn about how Alabama is the only land in the union that stay to celebrate the Confederacy withJefferson Davis Day .
