Dr. Oscar James Cooper, a physician, is most remembered as one of the co-founders of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., the first Greek letter fraternity founded by students at an HBCU (Howard University). Other cofounders were his classmates Edgar Amos Love and Frank Coleman and his faculty advisor, the renowned biologist Dr. Ernest Everett Just. Cooper was born in Washington, D.C., on May 20, 1888, the second child and first son to James B. Cooper and Mary M. Cooper. Their other children were Elizabeth Cooper, Joseph Cooper, and Edith Cooper.
Oscar Cooper’s early education began at the segregated John F. Cook School on P Street, NW, in the District of Columbia. He graduated from the M Street High School in the city (now Paul Laurence Dunbar High School) in 1909. He then enrolled in Howard University, and during his junior year, on November 17, 1911, he, Love, and Coleman founded Omega Psi Phi. The following month, on December 15, 1911, the Alpha chapter was established with fourteen academically talented young men as members. Love was elected first Basileus (President), Cooper as the Keeper of Records, and Coleman was voted in as Keeper of Seals.
During his senior year in 1912, Cooper was elected the Fraternity’s second Grand Basileus (national president). He played a pivotal role in establishing the second chapter, Beta, at the then all-male Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Cooper, who had been a laboratory assistant in biology to Dr. Just, continued in medical education and, in 1917, earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from Howard.
After completing residency at Freedmen’s Hospital (now Howard University Hospital), Cooper moved to Philadelphia to practice medicine. While there, in 1920, he became a charter member of Mu Chapter, one of the earliest graduate chapters of Omega Psi Phi, and served as the chapter’s first basileus.
From 1930 to 1972, Cooper practiced medicine out of his residence at 1621 West Jefferson Street in Philadelphia. Dr. Oscar James Cooper, who served as Omega Psi Phi’s second Grand Basileus, died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 24, 1972, at the age of 84. His legacy continues to inspire the 750 chapters globally of Omega Psi Phi, including in Nigeria, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In 2020, The Philadelphia City Council approved renaming the 1600 to 1700 block of West Jefferson Street to “Dr. Oscar J. Cooper Way” for his contributions to Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and the medical community in the City of Philadelphia for one-half century. In 2021, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission posthumously honored Cooper with a historical marker at his home and office site. In 2023, the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia nominated the house and office of Dr. Cooper at 1621 West Jefferson Street to be recognized on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, Philadelphia Historical Commission.
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Herman Dreer, The History of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity: A Brotherhood of Negro College Men, 1911 to 1939. (Washington, DC: Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc, 1940);
“Dr. Oscar James Cooper House,”https://www.phila.gov/media/20230823105025/1621-Jefferson-St-nomination-1.pdf.
