The following information thanks to Findagrave Contributor Oaklawn Operation Overload (49786217)
Bro. Algernon Johnson ‘A.J.’ Cooper, was born in 1908 in Mobile, Alabama, in his family’s home on the corner of Deleware and Warren Streets in what was known as the ‘Down the Bay neighborhood’. He attended State Street AME Zion Church as a youth. He was class treasurer when he graduated in 1926 from Emerson Normal Industrial Institute, a school for Blacks that produced notable graduates while being funded totally with private out-of-state donations through the American Missionary Association.
Upon graduating Emerson (which was the last graduating class before Emerson became a county public school) A.J. set his sights on Hampton Institute. While at Hampton, Bro. Cooper was initiated into the Gamma Epsilon Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, in the late 1920s. It was also at Hampton that he met and married a Lafayette, Louisiana, creole by the name of Gladys Mouton.
Brother Cooper graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and remained at Hampton as a cashier for the school until 1935, when he and his wife returned to his home of Mobile, Alabama, where a job as auditor for the Benevolent Christian Burial Association – his aunt’s expanding business – awaited him. He would eventually rise to the position of secretary-treasurer of Christian Benevolent.
Funeral Home and Burial Association and would serve in that capacity for over 3 decades during which time he marshaled the sales force and sought to optimize profits and investment returns. Skilled in finance, he was successful and highly regarded – an officer of the National Insurance Association as well as a civic leader in the Black community of Mobile.
In an effort to help African Americans in Mobile confront Jim Crow in the 1930s and 40s, Bro. Cooper was a member of the NAACP’s Mobile branch.
A devoted husband and father of six (6), including Rho Alpha’s own Bro. General J. Gary Cooper, Bro. Cooper was an astute businessman eager to share financial knowledge. In the community, he was a leader among Black civic and social groups and helped raise funds for Mobile’s first maternity hospital for Black women, which opened in 1950 and was the only hospital in the city of Mobile to allow African-American physicians to treat their patients and to provide care exclusively for people of color. It was named the Blessed Martin dePorres Maternity Hospital.
An esteemed philanthropic family, the Coopers lent S.D. Bishop his first funds, from the funeral home and insurance company that they ran, to buy a building to start what became Bishop State Community College.
Bro. Cooper was tapped in 1956 to serve on a biracial committee formed by the politically progressive white mayor, Joe Langan, as an arm of the Alabama Council on Human Relations. By now, a prominent Catholic layman, Bro. Cooper became of member of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, a fourth degree knight of Peter Claver, for which he was auditor for many years.
Bro. Cooper served multiple terms as president of Mobile’s prestigious Utopia Club, Incorporated, and was also a member of the Colored Carnival Association now known as the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association (MAMGA) and for many years served as its auditor.
Bro. Cooper was elected as Rho Alpha Chapter’s Omega Man of the Year for 1956, and was conferred the honor during National Achievement Week of that year.
Bro. Cooper entered Omega Chapter on November 7, 1968.
Reference:
Weaver, Kendal. Ten Stars: The African American Journey of Gary Cooper – Marine General, Diplomat, Businessman and Politician. New South Books. 2017. 1st Edition
Bro. Algernon Johnson ‘A.J.’ Cooper, was born in 1908 in Mobile, Alabama, in his family’s home on the corner of Deleware and Warren Streets in what was known as the ‘Down the Bay neighborhood’. He attended State Street AME Zion Church as a youth. He was class treasurer when he graduated in 1926 from Emerson Normal Industrial Institute, a school for Blacks that produced notable graduates while being funded totally with private out-of-state donations through the American Missionary Association.
Upon graduating Emerson (which was the last graduating class before Emerson became a county public school) A.J. set his sights on Hampton Institute. While at Hampton, Bro. Cooper was initiated into the Gamma Epsilon Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, in the late 1920s. It was also at Hampton that he met and married a Lafayette, Louisiana, creole by the name of Gladys Mouton.
Brother Cooper graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and remained at Hampton as a cashier for the school until 1935, when he and his wife returned to his home of Mobile, Alabama, where a job as auditor for the Benevolent Christian Burial Association – his aunt’s expanding business – awaited him. He would eventually rise to the position of secretary-treasurer of Christian Benevolent.
Funeral Home and Burial Association and would serve in that capacity for over 3 decades during which time he marshaled the sales force and sought to optimize profits and investment returns. Skilled in finance, he was successful and highly regarded – an officer of the National Insurance Association as well as a civic leader in the Black community of Mobile.
In an effort to help African Americans in Mobile confront Jim Crow in the 1930s and 40s, Bro. Cooper was a member of the NAACP’s Mobile branch.
A devoted husband and father of six (6), including Rho Alpha’s own Bro. General J. Gary Cooper, Bro. Cooper was an astute businessman eager to share financial knowledge. In the community, he was a leader among Black civic and social groups and helped raise funds for Mobile’s first maternity hospital for Black women, which opened in 1950 and was the only hospital in the city of Mobile to allow African-American physicians to treat their patients and to provide care exclusively for people of color. It was named the Blessed Martin dePorres Maternity Hospital.
An esteemed philanthropic family, the Coopers lent S.D. Bishop his first funds, from the funeral home and insurance company that they ran, to buy a building to start what became Bishop State Community College.
Bro. Cooper was tapped in 1956 to serve on a biracial committee formed by the politically progressive white mayor, Joe Langan, as an arm of the Alabama Council on Human Relations. By now, a prominent Catholic layman, Bro. Cooper became of member of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, a fourth degree knight of Peter Claver, for which he was auditor for many years.
Bro. Cooper served multiple terms as president of Mobile’s prestigious Utopia Club, Incorporated, and was also a member of the Colored Carnival Association now known as the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association (MAMGA) and for many years served as its auditor.
Bro. Cooper was elected as Rho Alpha Chapter’s Omega Man of the Year for 1956, and was conferred the honor during National Achievement Week of that year.
Bro. Cooper entered Omega Chapter on November 7, 1968.
Reference:
Weaver, Kendal. Ten Stars: The African American Journey of Gary Cooper – Marine General, Diplomat, Businessman and Politician. New South Books. 2017. 1st Edition
The following information thanks to Findagrave Contributor Oaklawn Operation Overload (49786217)
Bro. Algernon Johnson ‘A.J.’ Cooper, was born in 1908 in Mobile, Alabama, in his family’s home on the corner of Deleware and Warren Streets in what was known as the ‘Down the Bay neighborhood’. He attended State Street AME Zion Church as a youth. He was class treasurer when he graduated in 1926 from Emerson Normal Industrial Institute, a school for Blacks that produced notable graduates while being funded totally with private out-of-state donations through the American Missionary Association.
Upon graduating Emerson (which was the last graduating class before Emerson became a county public school) A.J. set his sights on Hampton Institute. While at Hampton, Bro. Cooper was initiated into the Gamma Epsilon Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, in the late 1920s. It was also at Hampton that he met and married a Lafayette, Louisiana, creole by the name of Gladys Mouton.
Brother Cooper graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and remained at Hampton as a cashier for the school until 1935, when he and his wife returned to his home of Mobile, Alabama, where a job as auditor for the Benevolent Christian Burial Association – his aunt’s expanding business – awaited him. He would eventually rise to the position of secretary-treasurer of Christian Benevolent.
Funeral Home and Burial Association and would serve in that capacity for over 3 decades during which time he marshaled the sales force and sought to optimize profits and investment returns. Skilled in finance, he was successful and highly regarded – an officer of the National Insurance Association as well as a civic leader in the Black community of Mobile.
In an effort to help African Americans in Mobile confront Jim Crow in the 1930s and 40s, Bro. Cooper was a member of the NAACP’s Mobile branch.
A devoted husband and father of six (6), including Rho Alpha’s own Bro. General J. Gary Cooper, Bro. Cooper was an astute businessman eager to share financial knowledge. In the community, he was a leader among Black civic and social groups and helped raise funds for Mobile’s first maternity hospital for Black women, which opened in 1950 and was the only hospital in the city of Mobile to allow African-American physicians to treat their patients and to provide care exclusively for people of color. It was named the Blessed Martin dePorres Maternity Hospital.
An esteemed philanthropic family, the Coopers lent S.D. Bishop his first funds, from the funeral home and insurance company that they ran, to buy a building to start what became Bishop State Community College.
Bro. Cooper was tapped in 1956 to serve on a biracial committee formed by the politically progressive white mayor, Joe Langan, as an arm of the Alabama Council on Human Relations. By now, a prominent Catholic layman, Bro. Cooper became of member of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, a fourth degree knight of Peter Claver, for which he was auditor for many years.
Bro. Cooper served multiple terms as president of Mobile’s prestigious Utopia Club, Incorporated, and was also a member of the Colored Carnival Association now known as the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association (MAMGA) and for many years served as its auditor.
Bro. Cooper was elected as Rho Alpha Chapter’s Omega Man of the Year for 1956, and was conferred the honor during National Achievement Week of that year.
Bro. Cooper entered Omega Chapter on November 7, 1968.
Reference:
Weaver, Kendal. Ten Stars: The African American Journey of Gary Cooper – Marine General, Diplomat, Businessman and Politician. New South Books. 2017. 1st Edition
Bro. Algernon Johnson ‘A.J.’ Cooper, was born in 1908 in Mobile, Alabama, in his family’s home on the corner of Deleware and Warren Streets in what was known as the ‘Down the Bay neighborhood’. He attended State Street AME Zion Church as a youth. He was class treasurer when he graduated in 1926 from Emerson Normal Industrial Institute, a school for Blacks that produced notable graduates while being funded totally with private out-of-state donations through the American Missionary Association.
Upon graduating Emerson (which was the last graduating class before Emerson became a county public school) A.J. set his sights on Hampton Institute. While at Hampton, Bro. Cooper was initiated into the Gamma Epsilon Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, in the late 1920s. It was also at Hampton that he met and married a Lafayette, Louisiana, creole by the name of Gladys Mouton.
Brother Cooper graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and remained at Hampton as a cashier for the school until 1935, when he and his wife returned to his home of Mobile, Alabama, where a job as auditor for the Benevolent Christian Burial Association – his aunt’s expanding business – awaited him. He would eventually rise to the position of secretary-treasurer of Christian Benevolent.
Funeral Home and Burial Association and would serve in that capacity for over 3 decades during which time he marshaled the sales force and sought to optimize profits and investment returns. Skilled in finance, he was successful and highly regarded – an officer of the National Insurance Association as well as a civic leader in the Black community of Mobile.
In an effort to help African Americans in Mobile confront Jim Crow in the 1930s and 40s, Bro. Cooper was a member of the NAACP’s Mobile branch.
A devoted husband and father of six (6), including Rho Alpha’s own Bro. General J. Gary Cooper, Bro. Cooper was an astute businessman eager to share financial knowledge. In the community, he was a leader among Black civic and social groups and helped raise funds for Mobile’s first maternity hospital for Black women, which opened in 1950 and was the only hospital in the city of Mobile to allow African-American physicians to treat their patients and to provide care exclusively for people of color. It was named the Blessed Martin dePorres Maternity Hospital.
An esteemed philanthropic family, the Coopers lent S.D. Bishop his first funds, from the funeral home and insurance company that they ran, to buy a building to start what became Bishop State Community College.
Bro. Cooper was tapped in 1956 to serve on a biracial committee formed by the politically progressive white mayor, Joe Langan, as an arm of the Alabama Council on Human Relations. By now, a prominent Catholic layman, Bro. Cooper became of member of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, a fourth degree knight of Peter Claver, for which he was auditor for many years.
Bro. Cooper served multiple terms as president of Mobile’s prestigious Utopia Club, Incorporated, and was also a member of the Colored Carnival Association now known as the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association (MAMGA) and for many years served as its auditor.
Bro. Cooper was elected as Rho Alpha Chapter’s Omega Man of the Year for 1956, and was conferred the honor during National Achievement Week of that year.
Bro. Cooper entered Omega Chapter on November 7, 1968.
Reference:
Weaver, Kendal. Ten Stars: The African American Journey of Gary Cooper – Marine General, Diplomat, Businessman and Politician. New South Books. 2017. 1st Edition
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
