Fanny Jackson Coppin

Fanny Jackson was born into slavery in Washington, D.C., and freed as a child when her aunt purchased her freedom for $125. She worked as a domestic servant to fund her early education before eventually enrolling at Oberlin College, one of the few institutions of the era admitting Black students.

At Oberlin, Jackson excelled academically, becoming the first Black student appointed to a teaching position at the school's preparatory department, and graduated in 1865. She then took a teaching position at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, a school for Black students, and within four years had been appointed its principal, becoming the first Black woman to lead an American institution of higher learning.

As principal for over three decades, Coppin transformed the Institute for Colored Youth by introducing an industrial and vocational education department alongside its classical academic curriculum, insisting Black students needed access to practical trade training as well as scholarly education to succeed in a discriminatory job market. After marrying Reverend Levi Coppin, she also became a missionary and educator in South Africa later in life, and Coppin State University in Baltimore was later named in her honour.