Mary Church Terrell

• Born: September 23, 1863
• Birthplace: Memphis, Tennessee
• Died: July 24, 1954
• Place of death: Annapolis, Maryland

Activist and educator

Best known as an orator and leader in the early fight for equality in the United States, Terrell used her intelligence and passion for social change to uplift African Americans, specifically women and youths. Her speeches, writings, and leadership broke ground for advances in women’s rights and civil rights on a national scale.

Early Life

Mary Eliza Church Terrell was born in Memphis, Tennessee, during the Civil War to middle-class parents Louisa and Robert Church. Her father, a businessman, and her mother, a successful beauty salon owner, had both been enslaved and were newly emancipated when their daughter was born. Shortly before Louisa and Robert divorced, six-year-old Terrell was sent to live with family members in Yellow Springs, Ohio, to attend school. She continued through secondary school in Ohio and went on to earn her bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College in 1884. Terrell completed the undergraduate requirements for the Gentleman’s Course of Classical Studies, a feat accomplished by very few women—Black or White—in an era when women who attended college were encouraged to simply learn the skills of homemaking. While working toward her master’s degree, which she obtained from Oberlin in 1888, Terrell served on the faculty at the historically black Wilberforce College.

Terrell relocated to Washington, DC, in 1888. There, she taught Latin at M Street High School and crossed paths with her future husband, Robert Terrell, who was her supervisor. In 1893, Terrell traveled to Europe, where she studied French and German for two years.

Life’s Work

Upon her return to Washington, DC, in 1895, Terrell was appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education. She was the first Black woman to serve on the district’s school board and arguably the first Black woman to hold a position on a school board anywhere in the United States. She went on to many more pioneering accomplishments for women of any race in the early twentieth century. Terrell was the first African American woman elected president of the well-known Bethel Literary and Historical Association in Washington. In 1905, she and Ida B. Wells-Barnett were the only African American women to help found the Niagara Movement, the precursor to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Terrell and Wells-Barnett became NAACP charter members in 1909.

One of Terrell’s most notable achievements was her role in shaping the Black women’s club movement in the United States. In 1896 she helped found the National Association of Colored Women, the first African American women’s organization in the United States. Terrell served as the first president of the organization and led the group to create chapters all over the country and organize initiatives to improve the lives of Black women and children.

Terrell was a well-known public speaker who focused on spreading a message of equality and social justice for the entire African American population. As a leader in the international women’s movement, Terrell was chosen as an American delegate to the International Congress of Women at Berlin in 1904, representing women of color in the United States. Her earlier travel in Europe proved useful, as she was the only woman who delivered her speech in three languages—French, German, and English.

Terrell and her husband were equally involved in movements for change in Washington, D.C., and beyond. Robert Terrell was one of the first African American graduates of Harvard University, the valedictorian of his class at Howard University’s law school, and the first African American municipal judge in Washington, DC. The couple had one daughter, Phyllis, and adopted their niece, also named Mary.

Terrell published her autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World, in 1940 to detail her accomplishments, travels, and lifelong commitment to promoting the rights of Black women and children. She fought for equal rights well into her eighties and nineties, participating in protests, marches, and demonstrations. She helped desegregate restaurants in Washington, DC, in the early 1950s, before the broader desegregation efforts of the Civil Rights movement began. Terrell died on July 24, 1954, in Annapolis, Maryland.

Significance

Terrell was a pioneer for civil rights and women’s rights who set the framework for future movements centered on social change in the United States. She achieved educational goals and leadership roles that were exceedingly rare for women of her time, much less women of color.

Bibliography

Broussard, Jinx Coleman. “Mary Church Terrell: Captivating Crusader.” In Giving a Voice to the Voiceless: Four Pioneering Black Women Journalists. New York: Routledge, 2004. Describes and analyzes Terrell’s writings about race, gender, and other topics. Details the difficulties she encountered in getting her articles published in the mainstream press.

Fradin, Dennis B., and Judith Bloom Fradin. Fight On! Mary Church Terrell’s Battle for Integration. New York: Clarion Books, 2003. Detailed record of Terrell’s strategies and systems created to fight for racial equality and social justice.

Sterling, Dorothy. Black Foremothers: Three Lives. New York: Feminist Press at CUNY, 1993. Compilation of the history of three black female leaders, in comparative form. Includes a useful time line detailing Terrell’s journey.

Terrell, Mary Church. A Colored Woman in a White World. Washington, D.C.: Ransdell, 1940. A firsthand account of Terrell’s life and work, written to highlight her accomplishments, struggles, triumphs, and hopes for the future.