Peggy Cooper Cafritz facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Peggy Cooper Cafritz
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| Born |
Pearl Alice Cooper
April 7, 1947 Mobile, Alabama, U.S.
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| Died | February 18, 2018 (aged 70) Washington, D.C., U.S.
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| Other names | Peggy Cooper |
| Alma mater | Saint Mary's Academy George Washington University |
| Occupation | Art collector, educator, civil rights activist, philanthropist |
| Years active | 1960s–2018 |
| Spouse(s) |
Conrad Cafritz
(m. 1981–1998) |
| Children | 3 |
Peggy Cooper Cafritz (born Pearl Alice Cooper; April 7, 1947 – February 18, 2018) was an amazing American woman. She was an art collector, a teacher, and a civil rights activist. She also helped many people through her generous giving.
Growing Up and Learning
Family and Early Life
Peggy Cafritz was born Pearl Alice Cooper in Mobile, Alabama. Her family was one of the richest African American families in the area. She later legally changed her name to "Peggy," her childhood nickname.
Her family's money came from her father, Algernon Johnson Cooper Sr. He owned insurance and funeral businesses. Peggy's parents knew the famous jazz musician Duke Ellington. He is the person the Duke Ellington School of the Arts is named after. Peggy later helped start this school.
School Days and Discoveries
Peggy grew up Catholic in the Jim Crow South. This was a time when Black and white people were kept separate by law. As a child, she went to a Catholic elementary school for Black children.
Peggy's love for art started when she was very young. Around age seven or eight, she was fascinated by a painting print her parents owned. It was Bottle and Fishes by Georges Braque, a French artist. She would look at it closely and make up stories about it. Her mother also helped her love art by looking at art books with her.
Peggy also loved to read. She read children's books in her family room. She also snuck into her father's private library. It had classic books and books about Black people. Reading James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son as a child was very important to her. It taught her that she could love the U.S. but also criticize it. She said this idea guided her for the rest of her life.
Meeting a Civil Rights Leader
In sixth grade, Peggy met Martin Luther King Jr.. She went with her father to a talk King gave. He was promoting his book Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. Afterward, Dr. King came to her family's home. He signed a copy of his book for Peggy. He told her to "aspire to be a quiet, strategic leader like my dad."
Facing Challenges
When she was 10, Peggy went to a Catholic summer camp in Michigan. She was the only Black camper there. Her father sent her there because he thought it was important for her to learn about the white world. She was put in a cabin alone. Other campers played racist pranks on her. For example, they would tell her her mother was visiting. But then Peggy would find another camper's Black maid instead. When she called home crying, her father told her she needed to learn to deal with racism. He said it would happen to her all her life. She went back to the camp the next year.
High School Experiences
Peggy's father tried to enroll her older brother in a white-only high school. After this, Peggy and her siblings were not allowed to attend their local Catholic high schools. So, Peggy went to a boarding school in Indiana. It was called Saint Mary's Academy and was mostly white.
In 1962, Peggy met the family of Dr. Roland Wesley Chamblee. They welcomed many Black students into their home. They had lively talks about religion, race, and morals. Peggy said the Chamblees helped her see the "beauty of my Black body, mind, and soul." Her high school also took many trips to Chicago. They saw plays, symphonies, and art shows. This helped her interest in art grow.
After high school, Peggy and her friends tested the new Civil Rights Act of 1964. They visited restaurants in Mobile. If a restaurant refused to serve them, they reported it to the Justice Department. At one drive-in restaurant, white teenage boys spat on them. They threw soda into their car and jumped on it. Two police officers watched but did nothing. Peggy and her friends were scared to drive away. They stayed in the car until the boys left. Peggy never spent another summer in Mobile.
College and Law School
In 1964, during the Civil Rights Movement, Peggy moved to Washington, D.C.. She went to George Washington University (GW). She quickly learned that the school had few Black students. Segregation was still common there. She felt she could use her skills to bring about change.
On her first day, she joined other Black students. They tried to join fraternities and sororities. This got the attention of the news. The university had to talk publicly about its segregated Greek system. Peggy wrote, "Thus began my career as an activist in D.C."
At GW, she helped create the Black Students Union. She also worked to integrate fraternities and sororities. Being in D.C. allowed her to visit all the Smithsonian museums. She also took trips to New York City museums. She and her friends were frustrated that Black people were left out of the art world. This included museums, performing arts, and other cultural places.
Peggy then went to George Washington University Law School. She earned her law degree in 1971. After her father died during her first year of law school, Peggy took out a loan. This helped her youngest brother stay in boarding school.
A Career of Impact
Peggy Cafritz wanted to bring together the money of white people and the power of Black people in Washington, D.C. She aimed for unity.
Early Work and Documentaries
In 1972, Peggy started working at Post-Newsweek stations. She was an assistant to Harry Belafonte and M. Carl Holman. She also began making documentaries. She was very determined in this job. She wanted to meet painter Jacob Lawrence for a documentary. When she couldn't get an appointment, she found his travel schedule. She flew to Chicago's O’Hare Airport and met him getting off a plane. She convinced him to talk with her. They became lifelong friends.
In the 1970s, she also produced documentaries for WTOP (now WUSA) in D.C. She was an arts reviewer for WETA, D.C.'s PBS station. For her work, she won both Emmy and Peabody awards.
Creating the Duke Ellington School of the Arts
In 1968, while still a student at GW, Peggy led a Black Arts Festival. It was sponsored by the Black Peoples Union. It also worked with DC Public Schools and the Parks and Recreation department. The festival let city kids perform and take part in the arts. They also met Black professionals who showed them different career paths.
One professional was Emmett J. Rice, who later led the Federal Reserve. His wife, Lois Rice, helped create the Pell Grant. While working on the festival, Peggy became good friends with Mike Malone, a choreographer. She told him that the students had real talent but no training. So, the two friends decided to start a school. Her father told her to keep the plan a secret so no one could say "no."
Peggy turned that first festival into a regular summer arts festival. The president of GW gave her free space. He asked her to raise money for it. In the second year, the famous dancer Debbie Allen was on their faculty. Peggy and Mike kept the summer festivals focused on helping D.C.'s less fortunate students get arts education. After six years, they finally opened the public magnet school Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Georgetown in 1974. It was like New York City's High School of Performing Arts.
Peggy and Mike wanted to create an arts program for local children. These children showed promise but had no way to develop their talents. Ellington was the only public high school in D.C. that trained students in both academics and intense professional arts. Peggy wanted students to challenge the idea that artists of color should only make art about inequality. Her hope was for artists of color to have complete freedom in their art. She wanted them to go to college and become leaders in the art world.
Famous alumni from Ellington include Dave Chappelle, Denyce Graves, and Hank Willis Thomas.
Ellington remained important to Peggy for the rest of her life. She held many roles at the school and its fundraising group, the Ellington Fund. She spent most of her energy making sure the school could always serve talented children in D.C., especially those who needed it most.
Impacting the Art World
Peggy started her art collection in college. She bought African art from students who had traveled to Africa. She also bought art from Warren M. Robbins. His collection later helped create the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art.
Peggy's marriage to Conrad Cafritz, a successful real estate developer, helped her become a serious art collector. She felt that Black artists were not included enough in the mainstream American art world. Her interest in fairness was tied to her art collecting. As she visited more museums and met young artists, her interest in art mixed with her political and social values.
She got involved in the political side of the arts. She made it her goal for the U.S. to recognize the missing and ignored contributions of African Americans in its culture. In 1968, she helped start the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She also led it from 1989 to 1999. In 1989, she became co-chair of the Smithsonian's Cultural Equity Committee. She was the youngest trustee ever on the American Film Institute. She also joined the Painting and Sculpture Acquisitions Committee at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
In 2009, a house fire destroyed her home in D.C. It was an eight-bedroom house where she held gatherings and kept her art collection. This collection was one of the largest private collections of African American and African art. About 300 works were lost in the fire. These included pieces by Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden. She reached an agreement with the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority about the fire. The fire hydrants had not had enough water pressure.
Peggy moved to Dupont Circle in 2010 and kept growing her collection. Her collection included works by Carrie Mae Weems, El Anatsui, Chris Ofili, and Mickalene Thomas. When she died, she gave over 250 works by Black artists to the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. She also gave over 400 works to the Studio Museum in Harlem. This was the largest gift of contemporary art by artists of African descent ever made.
Peggy was the first collector for many visual artists. She also supported many projects, like Spike Lee's movie Malcolm X.
Other Important Roles
In the 1970s, she was the youngest fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Peggy was the president of the D.C. school board from 2000 to 2006.
Personal Life
In her 2018 book, Peggy said her professional life was "spectacularly lucky." But she called her emotional life "tumultuous." She wrote that the comfort she found in art helped her collect it. She also collected art for its social and cultural impact.
In 1981, after living together for eight years, Peggy married Conrad Cafritz. He was a very rich real estate executive. Peggy was Catholic, and he was Jewish. They had three children together. The couple divorced in 1998. Peggy had many people she mentored. She also had unofficial foster children and several godchildren. These included Susan Rice and her brother, John.
Peggy was a well-known person in Washington, D.C.'s social scene. She spent time with cultural and political figures. These included Quincy Jones, Gloria Steinem, Bill Clinton, and Vernon Jordan.
Her brother, Algernon J. Cooper, Jr, was the first Black mayor of Prichard, Alabama. He was one of the first Black mayors in the modern era.
Death
Peggy Cafritz died in Washington, D.C., on February 18, 2018. She had been sick for a while and died from problems caused by pneumonia.
