African-American History Month: Mary Church Terrell

Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954)
Mary Church Terrell was an activist who fought for the rights of women of African descent. She worked as a lecturer, writer and teacher. Her parents, both born into slavery, worked hard and eventually prospered — becoming a wealthy family in Memphis, Tennessee. Despite the relative economic prosperity of her family, Mary still underwent the humiliation inherent with the segregation of the Jim Crow laws

One of the first black women to complete a college education, Mary graduated from Oberlin College in 1884. After graduation, she taught at Wilberforce, Ohio and then at the Preparatory School for Colored Youth in Washington D.C. Mary resigned from teaching after marrying Robert Terrell and spent the rest of her life as a women's rights activist, a lecturer and leader of the Black women's club movement.

"And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition ere long. With courage, born of success achieved in the past, with a keen sense of the responsibility which we shall continue to assume, we look forward to a future large with promise and hope. Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance." Address Before The National American Women's Suffrage Association — February 18, 1898

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