A champion of women’s rights long before feminism was popular, Mary Church Terrell, born on September 23, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee to formerly enslaved parents. Mary’s parents insisted that she and her younger brother receive the best possible education. They sent Mary to the Antioch College Model School in Ohio when she was eight years old because they felt the schools in Memphis were not good enough. As one of the few Black students at the school, Mary frequently faced racism, particularly from older students. She channeled her anger and humiliation into a world view that would shape her entire life. Mary thrived as a young student and eventually earned admittance to Oberlin College in Ohio.
She enrolled in the four-year "gentleman's course" instead of the expected two-year ladies' course, despite being warned that the course was difficult and that being overeducated would make it hard to find a husband. In the gentleman's course, she learned Latin and Greek. At Oberlin, Church was elected freshman class poet, edited the college newspaper, and participated in the Aelioian women's club. Through family connections and social networking, Terrell met many influential African-American activists of her day, including Booker T. Washington, director of the influential Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. At the age of 17, when she was enrolled at Oberlin, her father introduced her to activist Frederick Douglass at President James Garfield's inaugural gala.
Terrell received her Bachelor’s degree in 1884, graduating alongside Anna Julia Cooper and Ida Gibbs, the three activists would become lifelong colleagues. Four years later, Mary earned her Master’s degree. She was one of only two Black women in her class. After earning an undergraduate and a graduate degree, Mary taught French, writing, reading, and geology for two years at Wilberforce University, in Wilberforce, Ohio. She then, moved to Washington, D.C in 1888 and taught at the M Street School, later known as Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. While there, she married fellow teacher Robert Herberton Terrell in 1891, who became the first Black municipal court judge in Washington, D.C. She traveled to Europe to study for a short while.
Since her college years, Terrell was an active suffragist and was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Due to the NAWSA’s objection to including African-American women in its agenda, in 1892, Terrell, alongside six other women, established the Colored Women’s League in Washington, D.C. Around the same time, another group of progressive African-American women were gathering in Boston, Massachusetts under the direction of suffragist and intellectual Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin under the name Federation of Afro-American Women. As the president of the organization, she decided to combine efforts of the Federation of Afro-American Women along with similar other organizations across the United States to reach a wider focus of Black women workers, students and activists nearing the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1896, out of this union, she became the first president of the newly formed National Association of Colored Women, an organization which under her leadership worked to achieve educational and social reform and an end to discriminatory practices. As a national federation of local Black women’s clubs, NACW created unity across the Black reform movement and promoted respect for all Black women. The NACW's motto is "Lifting as we climb". In addition to serving as president of the National Association of Colored Women, Terrell also supported the Black woman’s right to vote. The League provided night classes for women, childcare for working mothers, and kindergarten classes for Black children. The NACW members dedicated their time and resources “to uplifting women, children, families…and the community through service, community education…and the promotion of racial harmony among all people.”
Specifically, Mary spoke to diverse audiences on topics such as African American empowerment and women’s suffrage. Along with Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Terrell brought attention to the atrocity of lynching, by telling the story of when her friend, Thomas Moss, who had owned a successful grocery in Memphis and was killed by racist thugs. Appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education in 1895, Terrell was the first Black woman to hold such a position. In that role, which she held for eleven years, she visited schools, raised funds, and encouraged schools to celebrate Frederick Douglass Day, a precursor to today’s Black History Month. She conceived of "Douglass Day" after the passing of Douglass in February of 1895, to highlight the global achievements of African Americans.
Indeed, she was well-regarded as a Black history buff. Terrell regularly received invitations to lecture on “the history, progress and future of the Negros of the Unites States.” Terrell later lauded her creation of Douglass Day: "I was convinced then as I am today that it is our duty to teach our youth that men and women of our racial group have distinguished themselves in various ways just as those of other races have done. For many years Douglass Day was faithfully observed in our public schools. If I had done nothing else during the 11 years I served as a member of the Board of Education than to make it possible or our boys and girls in Washington to learn what a great man Frederick Douglass was I should consider that my service in that capacity was well worthwhile."
An early advocate of women's rights, Terrell worked alongside the organization’s founder, Susan B. Anthony. She in particular addressed the concerns of Black women. She strongly believed that real change would only be achieved once women had the vote. Mary spoke out frequently to inform suffrage leaders that not all suffragists were White and that Black women needed to be included in the effort. On February 18, 1898, Mary spoke at the NAWSA convention and gave an address titled "The Progress of Colored Women" at the National American Woman Suffrage Association biennial session in Washington, D.C. This speech was a call of action for NAWSA to fight for the lives of Black women. Terrell spoke directly about the injustices and issues within the African-American community.
She publicly denounced the racism within the suffrage movement. She showed those in attendance the importance of solidarity among women activists of all races. It was also during this session that Terrell addressed the "double burden" African American women were facing. Terrell believed that, when compared to Euro-American women, Black women had to overcome not only their sex, but race as well. The speech received great reception from the Association and African-American news outlets, ultimately leading Terrell to be invited back as an unofficial African-American ambassador for the Association. Although they were involved in the fight for American women's right to vote, the NAWSA did not allow Black women to create their own chapter within the organization.
Mary was an effective leader who brought activists together and fostered collective advocacy around issues she cared deeply about. She was also dedicated to racial uplift. Terrell believed that African Americans would be accepted by White society if they received education and job training. She hoped that if Black men and women were seen as successful, they would not be discriminated against. She dedicated herself to educating and helping other African Americans. An eloquent spokeswoman, adept political organizer, and prolific writer, Terrell addressed a wide range of social issues in her long career, including the Jim Crow laws, lynching, and the convict lease system.
Terrell was invited to deliver two speeches on the challenges faced by women, and particularly women of color in America, at the International Congress of Women in Berlin in 1904. She was the only woman of Black woman invited to speak at the conference. She delivered her speeches in German, French, and English, receiving a standing ovation from the audience. Mary knew that she faced hurdles because of her race and her gender, and worked hard to disprove people’s expectations. As a leader in the civil rights movement, Mary was one of sixty prominent leaders to endorse the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at its founding in 1909 and helped found the Washington, D.C. branch.
During World War I, like many Americans, Mary searched for a way to serve the nation. She took the civil service exam. A few days after taking the exam, she received a notice to appear at Room 305 of the Aetna Building in Washington, DC. Impressed by her ability to speak French and German, the commanding officer offered her a chance to perform a job where her language ability would be invaluable. Initially turned down, Mary instead accepted a position as a Census Bureau clerk. Terrell also was involved with the War Camp Community Service, which supported recreation for servicemen. Later it aided in issues related to the demobilization of Black servicemen. Terrell was a delegate to the International Peace Conference after the end of the war.
In 1926, Woodson officially established the first Negro History Week. Pointing to Terrell’s influence, Woodson established the week in February to encompass Douglass Day (February 14th) and Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12th). Terrell later suggested that she influenced the establishment of Negro History Week, remarking years later that “Perhaps Douglass Day inspired Dr. Carter Woodson to establish Negro History Week many years after.” Indeed, Terrell worked directly with Woodson to promote Black history and Negro History Week across the country. She helped Woodson plan conferences for the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), which Woodson cofounded in 1915, and “urged” him to establish the “Negro History Bulletin” in 1937.
In her late years, Terrell’s commitment to taking on Jim Crow laws and pioneering new ground didn’t wane. In 1949 she became the first Black person admitted to the Washington chapter of the American Association of University Women. And it was Terrell who helped bring down segregated restaurants in her adopted home of Washington, D.C. Washington after WWII was becoming even more segregated than earlier in the century. Multiple instances of persons of color being refused restaurant service, entrance to museums, jobs, home purchases and etc. After being refused service by a Whites-only restaurant in 1950, Terrell and several other activists sued the establishment. This laid the groundwork for the eventual court order that ruled, on June 8th, 1953, that all segregated restaurants in the city were unconstitutional. She lived to see the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, holding unconstitutional the racial segregation of public schools. Terrell died two months later at the age of 90, on July 24, 1954.