William A. Cooper, artist and preacher gives the story of his
life as follows:
"My work has been my life. Whatever degree of succes I have
had has come about, I believe, as a result of my dogged determination
to do something tangible for my race.
"I was born in the country near Hillsboro, N.C. As a small
boy I worked on the farm. I worked in the tobacco fields, worming
and stemming tobacco as well as in the cotton fields. For about
four months in the winter I attended a Mission school in Hillsboro
for negros. In summer time I worked as a janitor and some times
as a cook or house boy.
"My father was an ordinary field hand who loved to train possum dogs. My mother had a grammar school education
and at the age of fourteen taught other boys and girls how to read and write.
"When I was about fourteen I began to support myself, and
soon there after went to the Industrial Institute at High Point,
N.C. as a work student. I worked on the school farm, got up at
five o'clock in the morning to milk the cows, plow and hoe cotton
and corn, and anything else that needed to be done. While I was
at this school I also took up brick laying along with my other
studies.
"From High Point I went to the National Religious Training
School at Durham, N.C. There I took the four year Theological
Course. Still working my way through school, I received the Bachelor
of Theology Degree from that institution.
"As soon as I had finished I went to Wilson, N.C. where
I started out as an insurance man, and at the same time preaching
at a small church on Sunday.
"I went from there to Burlington, N.C. where I was elected
Principal of a high school. I also served as Principal of the
high school at Graham, N.C. and taught at various other places.
All this time I was studying law at night and passed the State
Bar examination in 1922.
"I became interested in art for the first time a few years
before this. I was in bed with a severe cold and while lying idle
I thought I would try to {Begin inserted text} {Begin handwritten}
do {End handwritten} {End inserted text} two pictures illustrating
the Biblical quotation: 'Wide is the gate and broad is the way
that leadeth to destruction, but straight is the gate and narrow
is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be who find it.'
The members of my church were quite pleased with the pictures.
Their pleasure encouraged me a great deal, and from that time
on I began to paint other things. It was then I started painting
the members of my race, anybody I could get to sit-- field hands,
teachers, children, cooks or washerwomen. I had taken no formal
lessons at the time but I kept right on trying to see what I might
do.
"I have attempted to show the real negro through art. I
believe that unless we have some record of the negro that is neither
burlesqued with black face nor idealized with senmentality, the
younger generation of negroes will be deprived of inspiration
from their own race.
Full text (Library of Congress/American Life Histories: Manuscripts
from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940)
