Biography:Peggy Cooper Cafritz

Peggy Cooper Cafritz
Born	Pearl Alice Cooper Mobile, Alabama, U.S.
Died	February 18, 2018(2018-02-18) (aged 70) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Other names	Peggy Cooper
Alma mater	St Mary's College, 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 American art collector, educator, civil rights activist, philanthropist and socialite.

Early life and education

Cafritz was born to the Coopers, one of the wealthiest African American families in Mobile, Alabama. Though named Pearl Alice at birth, her parents always called her Peggy, and they later had her name changed legally. Her father worked for his family's business, which provided insurance and mortuary services. Her parents were socially acquainted with famous jazz musician Duke Ellington, namesake of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts which Cafritz would go on to co-found.

Cooper was raised Catholic, and she attended a Catholic elementary school for black children. The school was inferior to the local Catholic schools that only allowed white students to attend. During Christ the King parades each year, she and other black students who marched could only do so in the rear and, at the end of the parade route, they were only allowed to sit in the stadium's least desirable seats. At church, black families could only take communion after all the white families had already done so. When at the local movie theater, black families were only allowed to sit in the balcony.

The summer after graduating from high school, Cafritz and her friends tried to be served at a drive-in restaurant; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had recently been passed, forbidding racial discrimination in restaurants. When Cafritz and her friends buzzed for service, several white teenage boys approached their car, spat on them, threw soda through their car window, and jumped on the hood of the car. Two police officers watched from nearby but did nothing.

In 1964, during the African-American civil rights movement, Cafritz graduated from St Mary's College in Indiana and moved to Washington, D.C. to attend George Washington University where she organized the Black Student Union and worked on the integration of fraternities and sororities in 1968. She received her law degree from George Washington University in 1971. In the 1970s she was the youngest fellow of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Career

Cafritz wanted to bring the money of the white people and the power of the black people in Washington, D.C., together in unity.

In 1968, she organized a black arts festival and had inner-city students bussed in to the festival. Afterwards she and choreographer Mike Malone created a summer arts workshop for at-risk high school children. This program became the magnet school Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which she and Malone founded in 1974 and which they modeled after New York City's High School of Performing Arts. Their goal was to start an arts-education program for local children who had showed promise but had no outlet to demonstrate their potential. Ellington was the only public high school in Washington, D.C., to train students with a curriculum in both academics and intensive professional arts training. Ellington alumni include Dave Chappelle, Denyce Graves, Hank Willis Thomas and Meshell Ndegeocello.

Cafritz was DC school board president from 2000 to 2006. She also served on the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and member of the board for many arts institutions.

In addition to her philanthropic career, Cafritz was programming executive and documentary producer for WTOP-TV, an assistant at Post-Newsweek Stations, to Harry Belafonte and M. Carl Holman, president of the National Urban Coalition. Cafritz was the first collector for many visual artists and has sponsored many projects including Spike Lee's Malcolm X.

In 2009 a house fire destroyed her home in DC's Kent neighborhood, ravaging the eight-bedroom architectural landmark where she held salons and kept her art collection, one of the largest private collections of African American and African art. Among those 300 works destroyed in the fire were works by Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden. She reached a settlement with the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority over the fire for their inadequate pressure in the hydrants.

Cafritz moved to Dupont Circle in 2001 and continued to grow her collection. Included in the Cafritz collection is Carrie Mae Weems, El Anatsui, Chris Ofili, Mickalene Thomas, Glenn Ligon, Simone Leigh, Titus Kaphar, LaToya Ruby Frazier, William Villalongo, Tschabalala Self, Nathaniel Mary Quinn and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, whose work is featured on the cover of a 2018 book about Cafritz's collection.

Personal life

In 1981, Cafritz married real estate executive Conrad Cafritz. She was Catholic and he was Jewish. Together they had three children. The couple divorced in 1998; in the divorce documents, Peggy said her husband had cheated on her and had contempt for her friends and family who were black.

Cafritz died in Washington, D.C. on February 18, 2018, from complications from pneumonia after a period of declining health.

Works and publications

• Cafritz, Peggy Cooper (2018). Fired Up! Ready to Go! Finding Beauty, Demanding Equity. The African American Art Collections of Peggy Cooper Cafritz. New York: Rizzoli International Publications. ISBN 978-0-847-86058-6. OCLC 1021038973. 

External links

• Duke Ellington School of the Arts Project