Mary Church Terrell
Title
Mary Church Terrell
Description
Mary Church Terrell was an educator and lifelong activist on behalf of women's rights and racial equality. Terrell graduated from Oberlin College with a BA in Classics in 1884. She earned an MA in education from Oberlin in 1888, becoming of the first two African American women in the country to earn a Master's degree. She was a founder and the first president of the National Association for Colored Woman and a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Terrell was recognized as one of Oberlin College's "Top 100 Outstanding Alumni" in 1933. The college awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Humane letters in 1948 and renamed the library in her honor in 2018.
Birth Date
September 23, 1863
Birthplace
Memphis, TN
Death Date
July 24, 1954
Occupation
Educator and Activist
Biographical Text
Mary Church Terrell was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1863. Her parents had been enslaved, but her father would become a highly successful businessman and one of the first southern black millionaires. Terrell was part of a small black middle and upper class that emerged in the years after the Civil War.
Her mother, a beauty salon owner, sent Mary to Ohio when she was only seven so she could receive a quality elementary and secondary education, first at the Antioch College Model School in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and then at Oberlin High School. She enrolled at Oberlin College in 1884, where she was elected class poet, became involved in several literary societies, and wrote for the college newspaper, the Oberlin Review. She graduated with her BA in Classics in 1884 and with an MA in Education in 1888.
After briefly teaching at Wilberforce University, Terrell accepted a teaching position in the Latin Department at M Street School (now Paul Laurence Dunbar High School) in Washington, DC, where she met her husband, Robert Heberton Terrell. In 1895, she became the superintendent of Dunbar High School and became the first black woman appointed to the DC Board of Education.
Terrell's became an activist after one of her friends from Memphis was lynched in 1892. She joined Ida B. Wells' anti-lynching efforts. But she is best known as a leader in the black women's club movement and as a proponent of the politics of racial uplift. In 1896, she helped found the National Association of Colored Women, an organization dedicated to the advancement of Black women. With its motto, "Lifting as We Climb," the NACW sought to end racial discrimination by helping Blacks advance themselves. Terrell served as the NACW's president from 1896 to 1900. She was active in the women's suffrage movement and was a founding member of the NAACP and the College Alumnae Club, which was later renamed the National Association of University Women.
Terrell championed women's and civil rights her entire life. In 1940, she published her autobiography, A COLORED WOMEN IN A WHITE WORLD. In 1950, the 87-year old Terrell challenged segregation in Washington, DC after being denied service at Thompson restaurant. In 1953, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in Washington DC was unconstitutional.
In 2020, Terrell was inducted into National Women's Hall of Fame,
Her mother, a beauty salon owner, sent Mary to Ohio when she was only seven so she could receive a quality elementary and secondary education, first at the Antioch College Model School in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and then at Oberlin High School. She enrolled at Oberlin College in 1884, where she was elected class poet, became involved in several literary societies, and wrote for the college newspaper, the Oberlin Review. She graduated with her BA in Classics in 1884 and with an MA in Education in 1888.
After briefly teaching at Wilberforce University, Terrell accepted a teaching position in the Latin Department at M Street School (now Paul Laurence Dunbar High School) in Washington, DC, where she met her husband, Robert Heberton Terrell. In 1895, she became the superintendent of Dunbar High School and became the first black woman appointed to the DC Board of Education.
Terrell's became an activist after one of her friends from Memphis was lynched in 1892. She joined Ida B. Wells' anti-lynching efforts. But she is best known as a leader in the black women's club movement and as a proponent of the politics of racial uplift. In 1896, she helped found the National Association of Colored Women, an organization dedicated to the advancement of Black women. With its motto, "Lifting as We Climb," the NACW sought to end racial discrimination by helping Blacks advance themselves. Terrell served as the NACW's president from 1896 to 1900. She was active in the women's suffrage movement and was a founding member of the NAACP and the College Alumnae Club, which was later renamed the National Association of University Women.
Terrell championed women's and civil rights her entire life. In 1940, she published her autobiography, A COLORED WOMEN IN A WHITE WORLD. In 1950, the 87-year old Terrell challenged segregation in Washington, DC after being denied service at Thompson restaurant. In 1953, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in Washington DC was unconstitutional.
In 2020, Terrell was inducted into National Women's Hall of Fame,
Files
Citation
“Mary Church Terrell,” Oberlin Community History Hub, accessed May 2, 2024, https://megansmitchell.org/DH694/items/show/117.