Peggy Cooper Cafritz

Born Pearl Alice Cooper, Peggy Cafritz belonged to one of the wealthiest African American families in Mobile, Alabama. Her childhood nickname "Peggy" was eventually legally changed to be her real name. The Cooper family gained their wealth through Peggy's father who worked for the family business of 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.[3]

As a child, Cooper attended a segregated Catholic elementary school for black children and was raised Catholic.[4] The racism she experienced would shape her world view.

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.[3]

In 1964, during the 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.[4] She received her law degree from George Washington University in 1971.[4] In the 1970s she was the youngest fellow of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.[1]

Cafritz wanted to bring the money of the white people and the power of the black people in Washington, D.C., together in unity.[1]

In 1968, Cafritz she bused in inner-city students to attend a black arts festival that the organized.[1] 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.[1] Their goal was to start an arts-education program for local children who had showed promise but had no outlet to demonstrate their potential.[3] 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.[5][6][7][8]

Cafritz was DC school board president from 2000 to 2006.[4] 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.[1] Cafritz was the first collector for many visual artists and has sponsored many projects including Spike Lee's Malcolm X.[9]

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.[10][11] Among those 300 works destroyed in the fire were works by Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden.[12] She reached a settlement with the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority over the fire for their inadequate pressure in the hydrants.[13]

Cafritz moved to Dupont Circle in 2001 and continued to grow her collection.[14] 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.[15][16][17][18][19][20]

In 1981, Cafritz married multimillionaire real estate executive Conrad Cafritz, son of the real estate developer and philanthropist Morris Cafritz.[21] She was Catholic and he was Jewish.[3] Together they had three children.[1] 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.[19][3] Cafritz had many mentees, unofficial foster children, and several godchildren, including Susan Rice and her brother, John.[22]

Cafritz died in Washington, D.C. on February 18, 2018, from complications from pneumonia after a period of declining health.[1] She bequeathed more than 250 works by Black artists to the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and over 400 to the Studio Museum in Harlem,[23] marking the largest gift ever made of contemporary art by artists of African descent.[24]

• 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.

• Duke Ellington School of the Arts Project