Dorothy Cooper died Sunday, but the attention the Chattanooga woman brought to voter rights will not soon be forgotten.
Cooper, 101, became a national icon for voter rights after a Tennessee voter identification law passed in 2011. The law required Tennessee residents to show a valid driver’s license or other government-issued photo ID in order to vote.
Cooper had only missed voting one time – a move prevented her from registering on time in 1960 – since women were given the right to vote, the Times Free Press reported previously. When she heard of the new law, she took steps to get a free voter ID.
On Oct. 3, 2011, she took an envelope with a collection of documents to prove her residency and identity, but she didn’t have her marriage license with her to prove she was the same person listed on her birth certificate, which listed her maiden name and was her primary proof of identity.
It wasn’t until Oct. 20 that she got her photo ID.