Today In Black History: Fanny Jackson Coppin
Educator, Missionary, and Women's Rights Activist
Issue #889 Today In Black History, Monday, July 14, 2025
Fanny Jackson Coppin was born into slavery on January 8, 1837, in Washington, D.C. At age 12, her freedom was purchased by an aunt, allowing Fanny the opportunity to pursue an education, a privilege denied to many African Americans during that time.
Fanny later became one of the first African American women to attend Oberlin College in Ohio. Oberlin was progressive for its time, admitting black and female students, yet Fanny still faced significant challenges due to her race and gender. Nonetheless, she graduated in 1865, solidifying her deep dedication to education and social reform.
After college, Fanny moved to Philadelphia, where she took up a position at the Institute for Colored Youth (ICY), now known as Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. There, she became the first African American woman to serve as a school principal and the first African American school superintendent in the United States, when leadership roles for Black women were virtually non-existent.
On December 21, 1881, Fanny married Reverend Levi Jenkins Coppin, a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and pastor of Bethel AME Church in Baltimore. Fanny Jackson Coppin became increasingly involved in her husband's missionary work. In 1902, the couple traveled to South Africa, where they undertook various missionary endeavors, including the establishment of the Bethel Institute, a pioneering missionary school with self-help programs.
At ICY, Fanny was not simply an educator; she was a visionary reformer. She introduced rigorous academic standards, expanded the curriculum to include teacher training, and emphasized the importance of industrial arts.
She was one of the first vice presidents of the National Association of Colored Women, an early advocacy organization for Black women founded by Rosetta Douglas. Her work was rooted in the belief that education was the key to equality and empowerment for African Americans.
After almost a decade of missionary work, Fanny Jackson Coppin's declining health forced her to return to Philadelphia, and she died on January 21, 1913.
In 1926, a Baltimore teacher training school was named the Fanny Jackson Coppin Normal School (now Coppin State University). On February 12, 1986, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission dedicated a historical marker in honor of Coppin on the campus of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.
On June 24, 2021, the Philadelphia Board of Education voted unanimously to rename the former Andrew Jackson Elementary School in South Philadelphia after Jackson Coppin, effective July 1, 2021; the school is now named Fanny Jackson Coppin School.
Today In Black History
In 1885, Black inventor Sarah E.Goode patented the folding cabinet bed.
In 1891, Black inventor John Standard patented the refrigerator.
In 1953, the preservation of the Newton County, Missouri, boyhood home of agricultural scientist and inventor Dr. George Washington Carver became the first U.S. national monument dedicated to a Black American.
In 2019, Donald Trump tweeted that four Democratic women of color should “go back and help fix the totally crime-infested places from which they came.”
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