JOSEPH S. COTTER

by Rebecca Clark

Joseph S. Cotter was a man who was fighting against the system and the odds. Cotter was born February 2, 1861, to Micheil J. and Martha Cotter on a farm in Nelson County, Kentucky, that was owned by his great-grandfather, Daniel Stapp. William S. Ward in his book, A Literary History of Kentucky, states that Cotter's great-grandfather was a tanner who had bought his own freedom in 1829. He then continued to purchase other members of his immediate family (99).

Prior to Cotter's birth, his mother had been a servant at Judge John Rowen's estate, Federal Hill, now known as "My Old Kentucky Home" which became a state park in 1921. In a letter to John Wilson Townsend, dated May 27, 1933, Cotter states that his mother had been a servant to Mrs. Rowen about two years after Stephen Foster had written what is now our state song, "My Old Kentucky Home," and she was one of the first to hear it. It has always been speculated that Foster never visited his cousins, the Rowens. Employees of the park usually tell the visitors that he never set foot into Kentucky and that the whole story was a lie. This important letter appears to document a visit by Foster to Federal Hill while illuminating Cotter's background.

When Cotter was four years old, according to Ward, Cotter taught himself to read, yet he only completed the third grade of school (99). He then worked as a laborer to help support his family who by this time had moved to Louisville. According to Bess Ray, the assistant and project supervisor of the Louisville Library Collections, Cotter entered Louisville's first night school for blacks at age twenty-two. He received his diploma after ten months (449). It seems that at this stage in his life, Cotter began to realize that he had a purpose and that was to educate children of his own race.

After finishing school, Cotter became a teacher in the Cloverport, Kentucky, public schools. He also conducted a private school and taught at Western Colored School. In 1893, he returned to Louisville where he founded and was principal of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar School (448), named for a prominent black poet. Beginning in 1911 Cotter became principal of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge School in Louisville.

In a loose leaf page of paper found in the Nelson County Public Library, Cotter States: "Let us remember that the child is the only force that raises or lowers a community. Society has its ebb and flow in the cradle and the school room. He who steals or kills may be reformed behind prison bars, but he who fails to educate his children libels posterity" (9).

Before Cotter returned to Louisville and began teaching, Cotter married Maria F. Cox, a teacher and principal on July 22, 1891. Their marriage eventually produced three children: Florence Olivia, Joseph Jr. and Leonidas.

Only four years after his wedding, Cotter's first poetry book,A Rhyming was published in 1895. According to a letter written to Townsend, he had destroyed most of the work before he had it published. Links of Friendship published in 1898 was his second.

In 1903, Cotter then decided to write a four act play titled Caleb the Degenerate. According to Linda Metzger, senior editor of the book, Black Writers, whether the play was ever produced is not known, yet it was important because it shows the "types, customs and needs of the American Black" (122).

With only one collection of short stories, titled Negro Tales, published in 1912, Cotter returned to writing poetry. The rest of his books are A White Song and A Black One published in 1909, Collected Poems in 1938, and Negroes and Others at Work and Play published in 1947.

His most successful book of poems was titled Sequel to the Pied Piper of Hamelin published in 1939. The main poem, as the name suggests, was a sequel to Robert Browning's poem, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin."

It appears by the titles of his books that he was dedicated to the black cause. Seeming to agree with this observation, A. Russell Brooks in the book, The Black Writers, states, "Cotter's art deals with the problems blacks faced in his times..." (122). In the August 22, 1929 issue of the Louisville Courier-Journal, Colonel Bennett H. Young, Commander-in Chief of the United Confederate Veterans, was quoted as saying, "He has the proper spirit and recognition of the relations between the white and black man"(450).

Both of the above sources mention race as a factor in his writing. Instead of race being the theme, it appears more obvious that equality was the theme. In Cotter's poem, "The Confederate Veteran and the Old-Time Negro" chosen from Collected Poems, the topic is about two old men meeting. One is white and the other is black. They are both survivors of the Civil War. The old black man tells the other man his problems, and the Confederate veteran listens with understanding. The black man realizes that the two are not so different after all and that there shouldn't be any fight between them. Equality is also dominant in the poem, "North and South." Cotter asks the question why can't the North accept the fact that the war is over and once again become an equal nation. In the poem, "A Babe Is A Babe," the protagonist asks God why is there racism in the world and why can't people just accept each other, because at one time we were all innocent babies. Once again, equality is the theme.

Not only was Cotter an educator and an author, he was also involved in many activities. According to the Dictionary of Literary Biography, he was a member of the Author's League of America, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and was past director of Louisville Colored Orphan's Home Society (122).

Cotter died in 1949, preceded in death by all of his children. His son, Joseph Jr., died in 1919 at the age of twenty-three of tuberculosis. He was an aspiring poet. The letter mentioned above to Townsend, states that Cotter had sent him a copy of his son's book, The Band of Gidion. Also in the letter he states that at "seventy-two years young' he was learning how to play the piano. He was still working; there were 800 students at his school, and he himself was attending night school. Five years later, his dedication in his book, Collected Poems, states that he had been elected by the Louisville Board of Education to serve as teacher and principal for the fiftieth year (5).

After all, educating and writing about black children while fighting the odds that were against his race seemed to be his goal. He tried to obtain this goal by writing poetry that could be read and appreciated by all races and by showing everyone that equality could be reached if only people would stop and listen to others.

Cotter, Joseph S. Collected Poems. New York: Poetry Publisher, 1938.

Cotter, Joseph S. Letter to John Wilson Townsend. May 27, 1933. Townsend Room, Crabbe Library, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky.

Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 50: Afro-American Writers Before the Harlem Renaissance. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Inc. Booktower. 1986.

Metzger, Linda. Senior ed. Black Writers. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Inc. Booktower. 1989.

Ray, Bess A. Louisville Library Collections Biography Vol. 2. Louisville, Kentucky: Louisville Free Public Library. 1941.

Ward, William S. A Literary History of Kentucky. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press. 1988.

by Rebecca Clark

Cotter, Joseph S. A Rhyming. New South Publishing, 1895.

Cotter, Joseph S. Links of Friendship. Bradley & Gilbert, 1898.

Cotter, Joseph S. Caleb, the Degenerate; A Play in Four Acts: A Study of the Types, Customs, and Needs of the American Negro. Bradley & Gilbert, 1903.

Cotter, Joseph S. Negro Tales. Cosmopolitan Press, 1912.

Cotter, Joseph S. A White Song and a Black One. Bradley & Gilbert, 1909.

Cotter, Joseph S. Collected Poems. Henry Harrison, 1938. recent edition, Books for Libraries Press, 1971.

Cotter, Joseph S. Sequel to "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," and Other Poems. Henry Harrison, 1939.

Cotter, Joseph S. Negroes and Others at Work and Play. Paebar, 1947.