Bella Taylor McKnight Cooper papers, 1933-1969

Bella Taylor McKnight Cooper (1900-1982) was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a major in Sociology. Her first job after graduation was with the Chicago Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). Later Mrs. Cooper was executive director of the Cleveland, Ohio branch of the NAACP. During the second World War, she became the first African American U.S. Civil Service Commission representative and had charge in the Sixth Civil Service Region office of naval civilian appointments to Pearl Harbor, Mare Island, Hunter Point, Bremerton and Hampton Roads.

Cooper spent several years starting in 1944 travelling throughout the United States as Field Representative for the Harmon Foundation with the exhibit "Portraits of Outstanding Americans of Negro Origin." The exhibit featured 32 portraits of notable African Americans painted by Laura Wheeler Waring and Betsy Graves Reyneau. Cooper booked the exhibits at various locations, gave lectures and gallery talks, and prepared other programming relating to the exhibit.

Her marriage in 1949 to Felix B. Cooper, dentist and civil leader, brought Bella to Seattle. In Seattle she served in numerous civic organizations. In 1960 she was named "Woman of the Year" by the Greater Seattle Council of Binai B'rith Women, the largest Jewish service organization in the world, and also appointed to Washington Governor's Council on Aging.

Cooper was a board member of Civic Unity Committee, first vice president and finance chairman of Christian Friends for Racial Equality, and a board member of Seattle-King County Mental Health Association. Bella Taylor Cooper died May 18, 1982 in Los Angeles, California.