Works by ‘mother of Black Feminism’ transcribed at Wilkes

WILKES-BARRE — Some transcribed clear, printed text, others struggled to make out faded handwriting. There was a letter about an upcoming church chorale presentation, a poem, and even some passages in French and Latin. It was an impressive oeuvre of writings from a woman who started her life as the daughter of a slave, being preserved in digital form by students, faculty and staff of Wilkes University on Tuesday.

Reasons varied as to why so many volunteered for the time-consuming task — while they worked with documents scanned and posted online, transcription was done the old fashioned way by typing each word letter by letter. But the subject was the same: Anna Julia Cooper, referred to by some as “the mother of Black Feminism.”

Born a slave around 1858, Cooper overcame great odds to become the fourth Black American woman to earn a doctorate degree, from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. She went on to become a prominent scholar and activist, famous for writing “A Voice From the South by a Black Woman of the south in 1892.” Cooper was commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp in 2009, the 32nd stamp in the U.S. Postal Service Black Heritage series.

In commemoration of Frederick Douglass Day (officially Feb. 14, though born a slave himself, Douglass did not know his birthday), several organizers set up a “transcribe-a-thon,” making all of Cooper’s written works available online and asking people to volunteer to transcribe them. The goal is to have all the works available online in a searchable format.

Wilkes Assistant History Professor Amy Sopak-Joseph, who spearheaded the local effort with Global Cultures Assistant Professor Jonathan Kuiken, said about 75% of Cooper’s works were transcribed on Friday through the global effort, and that at the start of the Tuesday about 16% remained. “I’d love to see us finish it today,” she smiled.

In order to avoid mistakes, she added, three people transcribe each page, and there’s a lot to the job. The originals run a wide gamut, including journals, correspondence, published work and financial documents.

Using both handwritten and printed text helped overcome a growing issue in the digital world, she added, with some students grew up never learning to read or write in cursive. But even the printed documents could present a challenge. One student initially didn’t recognize highly ornate, red-colored drop capital letters at the start of each paragraph as a letter, though he figured it out quickly.

For Zach Mendoza, the work some would find tedious was enjoyable. “This is the kind of thing I want to do when I get my degree,” the public history major explained, “either a curator or an archivist.”

For Mmachi Dimoriaku, it was an eye-opening history lesson. She knew little to nothing about Cooper before getting involved, but became very impressed. Cooper “was an amazing lady,” she said. “She lived to be 104.”

And though she was getting credit for a club she belongs to by transcribing the work in front of her, she dismissed that as an unimportant incentive.

“This would be worth it even if I wasn’t getting credit.”