Mary Church Terrell was born in 1863, during the Civil War, in Memphis, Tennessee. Her father and mother were both born into slavery and were of mixed-race heritage, both fathered by white male enslavers. Despite the impediment of growing up as enslaved people, upon emancipation, her parents became prominent members of the Black elite of Memphis after the Civil War. During Reconstruction, her father became a successful businessman. He was one of the first African American millionaires in the Southern states, making his fortune in real estate. He was also very influential in Memphis and Tennessee politics and was a staunch supporter of Black civil rights throughout his life. Her mother, a hair stylist, was also a very successful entrepreneur who owned a hair salon frequented by well-to-do White residents of Memphis.
Her mother is credited with insisting that Mary acquire the best education possible, which her father supports. She started her education at the Antioch College Model School in Yellow Springs when she was eight years old. She then went on to attend Oberlin College, where she enrolled in the four-year “gentlemen’s course” instead of the two-year ladies’ course, graduating with her BA in 1884 with a major in Classics. She continued her studies at Oberlin, where she earned her master’s degree in education in 1888, becoming one of the first African American women to earn an MA. She would continue her studies in Europe, where she became fluent in French, German, and Italian.
Mary began a career in education, teaching modern languages at Wilberforce University, before moving to Washington DC to accept a position in the Latin Department at the highly regarded M. Street School, which would later become the Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School. Here she met her husband, Robert Terrell, a Harvard Graduate, who was Head of the Latin Department. He would later become a lawyer and one of the first African American municipal judges after receiving his law degree from Howard University.
Forced to give up her teaching position upon her marriage, which was the practice at the time, Mary Church Terrell became active in the Washington DC community, where she was elected as the first woman president of the prominent debate organization, The Bethel Literary and Historical Society. After she learned that a childhood friend, Thomas Moss, had been lynched in Memphis by Whites, she became a political activist. This was also the famous case that started the anti- lynching campaigns initiated by Ida B. Wells.
Terrell became active in the Black women’s club movement, which was the major force behind mobilizing Black women’s activism in local communities. She served as the first President of the influential National Association of Colored Women. Her history of involvement in education also led to her prestigious appointment to the District of Columbia Board of Education, where she sought equal treatment for Black students and teachers in DC’s segregated school system.
Having become one of the first Black women to join the suffrage movement, she used her friendships with the White women of the national organization to advocate for the inclusion of issues of concern for Black women. In 1904, she was invited to speak at the International Congress of Women that was held in Berlin, Germany. She received an enthusiastic ovation when she honored the host nation by delivering her address in German, while also including remarks in French and English. She would later march in the famous 1913 suffrage parade that took place during the inauguration of President Wilson, and she would also picket the White House for the women’s vote along with Alice Paul.
As the rate of race riots increased at the turn of the Century, the lynchings of Black men were at an all-time high. In 1909, Terrell, along with others such as Ida B. Wells, responded to the “Call” to attend the first organizational meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP. She was one of the founding members of this first national civil rights organization.
In her later years, she would become instrumental in confronting racism in the premier organization representing female college graduates, the American Association of University Women, by filing a lawsuit that resulted in the national organization passing an anti-discrimination requirement in 1949. In the 1950s, she fought to integrate restaurants in Washington DC, and at age 87, she marched in a picket line outside Kresge’s, a five-and-ten-cent store that refused to serve Blacks. In 1953, on her 90th birthday, just one year before her death, Terrell announced a campaign to integrate Washington’s movie theatres, which was successful within just a few weeks.
Let us all take inspiration from this remarkable woman and continue our efforts to work for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
