Coppin, Fanny Jackson

Fanny Jackson Coppin (1837–1913) was the first Black woman to head an institution of higher learning in the nation. Fanny Jackson Coppin held the post of principal of Philadelphia's Institute for Colored Youth (ICY) from 1869 to 1901—at the time, the highest educational appointment of a Black woman in the United States.

Fanny Jackson was born into slavery in Washington, D.C., in 1837. Later in childhood, an aunt, Sarah Orr, purchased Jackson's freedom. She lived with relatives in New Bedford, Massachusetts, then moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where she worked as a domestic, paid for tutors, studied in the segregated public schools, and attended the Rhode Island State Normal School in 1859. Coppin gained admission to the Ladies Department of Oberlin College, in Ohio, in 1860. Recognized by the administration as an exceptional student by the time she progressed to the junior/senior collegiate department, she was asked to teach lowerlevel preparatory classes, an honor given to few students and of particular note because she was one of the few Blacks at Oberlin. To the surprise of many, not only was Jackson viewed as an excellent teacher, her class sizes doubled with students anxious to attend her sections.

Jackson undertook the completion of a 4-year “Gentleman's Course” of studies rooted in Greek, Latin, and mathematics, and she managed to be the second Black woman in Oberlin's history to complete the BA. She later gained national recognition for her volunteerism and work beyond college courses, establishing evening schools for former slaves migrating from the South.

Before her graduation from Oberlin in 1865, Jackson was recruited to teach at the Philadelphiabased ICY, established by the Quakers. Under her leadership, the Philadelphia institute grew to attract a national and international student body and maintained a long waiting list of applicants interested in the school's high academic standards, rigorous science curriculum, and classical college preparatory curriculum. However, Jackson Coppin did not forget her roots and the dire need of the community to have industrial and vocational programs that would prepare students for the occupational market. She advocated for women's career choices in traditional and nontraditional fields and independent business ownership. At the request of school commissioners seeking teachers in Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey, Fanny Jackson Coppin developed a division within ICY for school management and methods of teaching. Far ahead of its time, the curriculum fostered child-centered educational practices, a deep belief in reciprocal teacher/learner respect, and opposition to corporal punishment.

Fanny Jackson Coppin was committed to community development and launched what she called an “industrial crusade,” with a twofold mission: (a) to impress upon Blacks the need for cooperation in business and (b) to emphasize to the community the critical importance of industrial and technical training as an immediate solution to the employment problem. She also wrote columns and spoke locally and nationally, while also introducing cooperative fund-raising efforts for charitable organizations to the ICY's students.

In the last years of her life, Fanny Jackson Coppin wrote Reminiscences of School Life and Hints on Teaching (1913), a text predating today's professional development models, offering practical hints on teaching and learning, reflections on her travels to South Africa and England, and biographical sketches of the staff at ICY as well as its noted graduates. Through her writings, Jackson Coppin advocated her deeply held beliefs that Black children should have a choice between the European classical academic or vocational educational curricula. On respecting the child, she simply stated that children are human beings with needs, just like adults. For 40 years, she remained actively involved in the leadership of the ICY, impacting the educational outcomes of Black people across the country.

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