Biography
Cecile Cooper was born in Trenton,
Missouri, on April 15, 1900. She
attended Walker's Beauty Academy in Chicago.
She later worked as a hairdresser in the Quad Cities area and resided in
Davenport, Iowa. She was a member of
the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Davenport. From the 1950s to
1970s, Cooper was active in over thirty secular and church-related volunteer
organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, the League of Women Voters, the Iowa and Quad Cities Human
Rights Council, the Democratic Party and the Catholic Interracial Council. She was the founder of the Quad City Negro
Heritage Society.
In 1960, she traveled with other
volunteers to take food and clothing to the Mississippi Delta. Cooper also organized local support in the
mid-1960s to aid civil rights efforts in Mississippi, including the Freedom
Schools.
In 1978, Cooper was presented with
the local Diana Award for her volunteer efforts and won third place in the
National Diana Award competition. In
this same year, she moved to a retirement home in Coralville, Iowa. In 1986, she moved back to Davenport.
Cecile Cooper died on May 25, 1997
in Davenport, Iowa.
Scope and Content Note
The Cecile Cooper papers measure 3
linear inches and date from 1964 to 1987.
The collection consists primarily of newspaper clippings, along with a
small amount of correspondence and a few, mostly unidentified photographs.
Newspaper clippings
(1964-1998) make up the bulk of the collection, following the career of
Cooper's nephew Simon Estes, a bass-baritone who starred at the New York
Metropolitan Opera. The grandson of a
former slave, Estes was a Centervile, Iowa native who studied at the University
of Iowa and The Juilliard School in New York.
Clippings relate to performances by Estes, his Iowa roots, and racial
discrimination in the opera world.
Estes notes the difficulties many white audiences had with the idea of
an African-American male playing opposite a white woman. Also included are articles relating to
volunteer organizations in which Cooper was active and articles celebrating
Cooper's volunteer activities. One
clipping from 1964 describes the activities of an Iowa civil rights worker in
Mississippi for whom Cooper organized local support.
Correspondence (1966-1979) is primarily
congratulatory in nature. Some letters
contain descriptions of volunteer projects with which Cooper was involved. There are two letters from United States
Representative Fred Schwengel. With the
correspondence are two pages outlining the historical development of the Quad
Cities Council on Human Rights.
Box no. Description
Box 1
Correspondence, 1966-1979
Newspaper Clippings
1964-1998
Simon Estes, 1966-1987
Photographs, 1965-1968
