This chapter engages Dr. Anna Julia Cooper’s speech/essay, The Higher Education of Women, to illustrate her advocacy in education and how she articulated her stance rhetorically. This discussion of her work is thematically situated in educational leadership, as engaged within a course on the Foundations of Curriculum and Instruction. Relevant to the selection and use of this work are demographic profiles of students, school administrators, and the professor as well as the written assessment linked to leadership standards and expectations (i.e., crafting

communication for targeted audiences). Philosophical, theoretical, and pedagogical lenses are offered through illustrations of Cooper’s practice of advocacy: public support for the higher education of Black women. Overall, this engagement with her work (writ large) provides a counter-space in educational leadership preparation by focusing on equity and excellence in the curriculum. As such students are provided a bridge between historical and present-day curriculum leadership, practice, and preparation that is attuned to the educational ambitions of women who identify racially as Black and/or ethnically as African American.