Fanny Jackson Coppin was not a Baltimore resident but her incredible legacy looms large over Greater Mondawmin. Coppin was born into slavery in Washington, D.C. in 1837. After an aunt purchased her freedom for $125 at age 12, she moved to Newport, Rhode Island to work as a domestic servant for George Henry Calvert. Calvert was a descendent of the Calvert family that founded the colony of Maryland and whose patriarchs held the title of Lord Baltimore, for which the city of Baltimore is named.
While working for Calvert, Coppin studied at the Rhode Island State Normal School (a “normal” school is an institution for teacher training) and went on to study at Oberlin College in Ohio, the first college to admit both women and African Americans. She graduated in 1865, becoming only the third Black woman in the country to obtain a bachelor’s degree. After graduation, Coppin moved to Philadelphia to teach at the Institute for Colored Youth, which would become Cheyney University, America’s oldest HBCU. Coppin would go on to become the principal of the school and later superintendent, becoming the first Black woman to hold such a position. In 1902, Coppin moved to Cape Town, South Africa with her husband Reverend Levi Coppin to open a ministry in the colony. Coppin returned to Philadelphia in 1907 and passed away in 1913 at age 76.
In 1900, a teacher training program began at what was then called the “Colored High and Training School.” This program eventually became its own normal school, which separated formally from the high school in 1907, though it still shared a building. In 1925, the high school moved to a new building in Sandtown and was renamed Frederick Douglass High School. A year later, the normal school was renamed the Fanny Jackson Coppin Normal School, which would go on to become Coppin State University. In 1950, Coppin State would move to its current location on North Avenue and in 1954 Douglass High would relocate to Gwynns Falls Parkway. Today, Coppin State is a large and diverse institution that teaches far more than just teacher training, but its commitment to its namesake’s legacy of excellent educational for all remains.