Fanny Jackson Coppin and Oberlin College

Abstract

Abstract Fanny Jackson Coppin was a prominent educator of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born a slave in Washington, DC, in 1837, her freedom was purchased by a devoted aunt when she was thirteen. She moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where she worked as a servant in the mansion of the Calverts, descendants of Lord Baltimore and Mary Queen of Scots. From 1860 to 1865, Coppin attended Oberlin College in Ohio. When she graduated in 1865, she was the second known Black woman college graduate in the country. Upon graduating, she became a teacher and later principal of the Quaker-founded private classical high school in Philadelphia, the Institute for Colored Youth, working there for thirty-seven years. Under Coppin’s leadership, the school became renowned for its high academic offerings and outstanding students. This chapter discusses her philosophy of education and race.