US civil rights activist Annie Lee Wilkerson Cooper (1910 – 2010) is committed to the right to vote for African Americans. She was particularly noted for throwing a punch at the sheriff of Dallas County (Alabama).
Racial segregation
Annie Lee Wilkerson was born on June 2, 1910 in Selma (Alabama, United States). She is one of ten children of Lucy Jones and Charles Wilkerson Sr. Annie Lee grew up in the midst of racial segregation in the United States.
Slavery has been abolished since 1865 and the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1870, theoretically allows African Americans to vote. Many southern states then competed in ingenuity to invent methods restricting the access of the black community to the polls. Alabama thus voted in 1901 for a new constitution restricting access to the vote with conditions of resources and literacy. The vast majority of black citizens, as well as many poor white workers, lose the right to vote. Annie Lee grew up not even knowing that black people could theoretically vote.
At the age of 12 or 13, Annie Lee left school and moved to Kentucky to live with an older sister. It was there that she first saw black people voting. Delighted, she wants to vote herself but is still too young to do so. Subsequently, she will manage to register on the electoral rolls in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Removed for wanting to vote
Little is known of Annie Lee Wilkerson Cooper's existence for the next forty years, until she returned to Selma in 1962 to care for her elderly mother. Settling permanently in the city, she took a job in a retirement home. After having voted previously, Annie Lee has every intention of also registering on the electoral lists in Selma, but her first attempt ends in failure; the clerk informs her that she failed the exam. Determined to vote, Annie Lee joins the Dallas County Voters League by Amelia Boynton Robinson and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and tries again many times.
In October 1963, the SNCC called on black citizens to gather at the Dallas County Courthouse to register to vote. Annie Lee Cooper is one of a crowd of four hundred people, who line up for hours outside the courthouse in hopes of getting the long-awaited registration. The attempt again ends in failure, and is not without consequences for Annie Lee. Her employer, Mr. Dunn, surprises her in the crowd with another of his employees, Elnora Collins. Not only does he fire them both, but he manages to prevent them from finding employment in Selma. Annie Lee ends up finding a new job at the Torch Motel.
“No one is afraid of them”
In 1965, Martin Luther King Jr and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) come to Selma and implement actions in favor of the right to vote. Again, a crowd gathers outside the Dallas County Courthouse to register to vote; Annie Lee Wilkerson Cooper is not missing the appointment. After hours of waiting, anti-desegregation sheriff Jim Clark orders the crowd to disperse. Annie Lee then declares:“Nobody’s afraid of them” (no one is afraid of them).
According to Annie Lee, the sheriff and his deputies brutalize a man who refuses to move, and Jim Clark hits her with a truncheon. She then turns around and lands a right hook in the jaws of the sheriff, who collapses. The reaction of the police is immediate:Annie Lee is thrown to the ground and subdued while Jim Clark beats her with his truncheon. Activist and politician John Lewis said:Clark whacked her so hard we could hear the sound several rows back. » (Clark beat her so hard you could hear the sound several rows behind).
Annie Lee is arrested, accused of "criminal provocation" and taken to prison where she is kept for eleven hours. They eventually release her, for fear that Sheriff Jim Clark will return to beat the 54-year-old woman again. While in prison, Martin Luther King comments on the events during his speech:
“This is what happened today:Mrs. Cooper was down in that line, and they haven't told the press the truth about it. Mrs. Cooper wouldn't have turned around and hit Sheriff Clark just to be hitting. And of course, as you know, we teach a philosophy of not retaliating and not hitting back, but the truth of the situation is that Mrs. Cooper, if she did anything, was provoked by Sheriff Clark.”
(Here's what happened today:Ms. Cooper was in that line, and the truth wasn't told to the press. Ms. Cooper wouldn't have turned around to hit Sheriff Clark just to hit. Like you You know, we have a philosophy of not fighting back, but the truth is that Mrs. Cooper, if she did anything, was provoked by Sheriff Clark.)
The Voting Rights Act
After this action and the marches from Selma to Montgomery, the Voting Rights Act , prohibiting racial discrimination in access to the vote, was adopted in August 1965 and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Annie Lee can finally register on the electoral rolls of her state.
Annie Lee celebrated her 100th birthday in June 2010. She commented on her longevity by saying, “My mother lived to be 106, so maybe I can live that long, too. (My mother lived to be 106, maybe I can live that long too). Annie Lee Wilkerson Cooper died in November 2010.
In the movie Selma directed by Ava DuVernay, returning to the steps from Selma to Montgomery, Oprah Winfrey stars as Annie Lee. She says she accepted the role "for the magnificence of Annie Lee Cooper and what her courage represented for an entire movement" .