Annie Lee Cooper | Celebrating Historical Black Figures

We at GoodTrust are celebrating Black History Month and want to honor the sacrifices and contributions of African Americans who fought for equality with their entire lives. Black History month rightfully celebrates heroes like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and many others who changed history. In this article series, we would like to bring attention to lesser-known African-Americans that had an immense impact on the equality movement and the future of the United States.

In this case, Annie Lee Cooper was an African-American civil rights activist involved in many movements during the 1960s including the Selma Voting Rights Movement, and is best known for punching Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark.

Annie Lee Cooper was born on June 2, 1910, as Annie Lee Wilkerson in Selma, AL. She had a total of nine siblings and lived with her parents Lucy Jones and Charles Wilkerson Sr. until she reached the age of 13. Afterwards she dropped out of seventh grade to live with one of her older sisters in Kentucky. She returned to Selma in 1962 to take care of her mother.

She first joined the civil rights movement in Selma when she was fired from her job at a nursing home for trying to register to vote. In January 1965, Cooper decided to line up outside the Dallas County Courthouse to register to vote despite the setbacks and negative impacts of her previous tries. She stood in the line for several hours trying to register when she was approached by Jim Clark, a sheriff of Dallas County known for his racist remarks and behavior.

He ordered her to leave the premises and prodded her in the neck with a baton until she punched him in the jaw. She knocked him down but got wrestled and beaten by deputies and later arrested. She spent 11 hours in jail before she was allowed to leave, and following the incident she became a registered voter in her home state. Being a huge part of the 1965 Selma civil rights movement she is said to play an important role in the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

Annie Lee Cooper passed away in 2010 at 100 years old in Selma, AL. John Lewis, a civil rights activist from Tennessee, described Cooper as “upfront, pleasant and absolutely fearless”. Her courageous and fearless stand in the voter registration line made her a hero for many people even years later. Here at GoodTrust we would like to honor Annie Cooper and her legacy with this article. Her memory was animated with GoodTrust Memories. You can create your own animation here. 

Happy Black History Month!