Mary Church Terrell, Teacher and Women's Advocate

Mary Church Terrell was born on September 23, 1863 in Memphis, Tennessee. This was also the year of the Emancipation Proclamation. Her father, Robert R. Church, Sr. was one of the first millionaires in the South. Louisa was her mother's name.

She spent two years in Europe after graduating from Oberlin College in Ohio. While there she studied French, German and Italian. In 1948 she was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. She held a teaching position at the M Street High School in Washington, DC. It was here that she met her husband, Robert.

She built a summer home next to abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Mary Church Terrell was the founder of the Colored Woman's League in Washington in 1892. It eventually merged with the National Federation of Afro-American Women in 1896. The organization was then changed to the National Federation of Colored Women. She was its first president.

Not one to be quiet when she felt an injustice was being done, she wrote many articles denouncing the practice of segregation. She was a sought-after speaker and lecturer.

In 1895 she was appointed to the District of Columbia's Board of Education. It was an historical first in America for a woman of color. During WWI she became involved with the War Camp Community Services. She also worked with the suffrage movement in their efforts as they fought hard for the enactment of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

One year short of her death, Mary Church Terrell marched at the head of the line to protest the discriminatory practices of the Kresge's store and Thompson's restaurant.

Her life is summed up with a story that she told about two ministers. It goes as follows, "They had to walk many miles with peas in their shoes. One arrived with sores on his feet. The other boiled his peas first. He arrived rested". She told this story to serve as a reminder that people must always work to overcome problems.

And that's just what she did. Mary Church Terrell died on July 25, 1954 at the age of 90.

SOURCE:

Women With A Message. 1988 by Media Materials, Inc. Baltimore, MD.
http://www.tnstate.edu/library/digital/terrell.htm