up. Anna Julia Cooper Anna J. Cooper has an essay, "One Phase of American Literature", which includes an excerpt directed towards W. D. Howells. Howells wrote a book, An Imperative Duty which details the life of a young woman who is considered white until her Aunt explains that she is actually of African descent. The New York Times ran a review of Howell's book, which questioned, "Has or has not Mr. Howells any sympathy with the colored race?”. The article continues explaining that Howells used every black American stereotype he could find and incorporated it into the book. Overall, the article showed a clear disliking to the book. Anna J. Cooper had similar emotions; she explains, "that it is an insult to humanity and a sin against God to publish any such sweeping generalizations of a race on such meager and superficial information". In a very brief selection, Cooper clearly expresses her dislike for Howell and his book. Her anger is evident through the bashing of Howell for "giving only a half truth and […] a partisan half truth [at that]". Her strong sense of frustration can be understood in an article, "Tending to the Roots: Anna Julia Cooper’s Sociopolitical Thought and Activism", by Kathy L. Glass. Glass explains that "[Cooper crosses] the boundaries of race and sex to court communities from which black women are traditionally excluded, or within which they are routinely marginalized". Cooper had a tough time fighting for individuals of color, especially women, "African American not only had to deal with the oppressive white society but also oppression within their own racial group". Howell was a member of the "white society" so he was her main oppressor but the point is, it is not fair for her life and culture to be interpreted in such a foul manner. During Americanization, people were looking to be accepted into the white society. This is probably why Howell wrote his book. He wanted to depict an African American being accepted in the white society. Unfortunately, he did it all wrong. Howell took an idea about a culture and ran with it, unfortunately in the wrong direction. Cooper even expresses one of her main concerns being, "there is little point and no force of character about the beautiful and irresponsible young heroine". Cooper was notably a woman with strong values and she fought for all people. It is obvious that