Mary Church Terrell defined activism for Black Americans and women’s rights from the late 1800s to mid-1900s. She achieved a staggering list of professional accomplishments at a time when women could not ride bicycles or wear pants let alone vote or own property. In addition to founding and chairing numerous important organizations, she was an accomplished speaker and author.
She left a sizable body of work including scholarly articles, essays, poems and an autobiography. In all her writings she illuminates her personal battles with both gender and racial discrimination in America. At the core of all her work is her belief in racial uplift through education, work and community activism.
Volumes have been written about Mary Church Terrell. Following is a chronology of a few highlights from her extraordinary life and career as told in her own words from several of her works Events from her early life include excerpts from her autobiography, A Colored Woman In a White World, 1940. Events from her later life include excerpts from some of her exemplary speeches.
1863 – Born in Memphis, Tennessee.
She was born Mary E. Church in Memphis, Tennessee near the end of the Civil War. Both parents were slaves who were freed with the Emancipation Proclamation. Although her parents were divorced, they remained cordial and supportive even after her father re-married. Both her father and mother were extraordinarily successful. Her father was a bar owner and later a developer who became a millionaire. Her mother built a highly respected beauty business.
The following excerpts are from Terrell’s autobiography, “A Colored Woman In A White World” published 1940. Text can be accessed here.
About her father Mary Church Terrell wrote:
“So far as I can recall, as a child, whenever I saw my father in the company of white men, they talked to him as they did each other. I call attention to this fact particularly, because the period to which I refer was so soon after the emancipation of the slave. It seems remarkable that in their relations to each other both the ex-masters and the ex-slaves could adjust themselves as quickly as they did in some instances in the new order of things.” (A Colored Woman In a White World )
Despite her father’s ability to walk tall, Mary Church encountered racism at the age of five when an irate conductor on a train ordered her to sit in coach where he said “she belonged.” Her father caused a scene until the wrong was made right. When Mary Church returned home she told her mother was supportive.
“Trying to suppress her tears, my mother patted me on the head and comforted me… Seeing their children touched and seared and wounded by race prejudice is one of the heaviest crosses which colored women have to bear.” (A Colored Woman In a White World )
“My mother also possessed remarkable business ability and established a hair store in Memphis which was a brilliant success. I am sure she was the first colored woman in Memphis and among the first in the entire South to establish and maintain a store of such excellence as hers undoubtedly was.” (A Colored Woman In a White World)
1869-Mary Church attended “Model School” for children in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
“Realizing that the education facilities for colored children were very poor in Memphis at the time, Mother decided to send me North to school, when I was about six years old.” (A Colored Woman In a White World )
Terrell was an excellent student.
“I was ambitious to stand at the head of my class and I was willing to pay the price. I do not deserve one bit of credit for this however, because getting my lessons was a sort of indoor sport for me and was a genuine joy…But by no possible stretch of the imagination could anyone call me a “goody, goody girl,” for I played and romped every minute I could.” .” (A Colored Woman In a White World )
“While we were reciting our history lesson one day, it suddenly occurred to me that I, myself, was descended from the very slaves whom the Emancipation Proclamation set free. I was stunned. I felt humiliated and disgraced…now I knew I belonged to a group of people who had been brutalized, degraded, and sold like animals. It was a rude and terrible shock indeed.” (A Colored Woman In a White World )
But she soon reclaimed her self -respect.
“I felt I had the right to look the world in the eye like any other free woman and to hold my head as high as anybody else.” .” (A Colored Woman In a White World )
1884-Among the First African American Women to Attend Oberlin College
Mary Church received an undergraduate degree in Classics in 1884, and a graduate degree in Education in 1888.
Her father supported her decision to pursue a higher education. Still, she faced the same arguments as other women of her time.
“While I was in the high school I had to decide what course I would take when I entered college. I chose the Classical Course which necessitated the study of Greek and which was called the “gentlemen’s course,” because it was the one generally pursued by men who wanted the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
Few women in Oberlin College took the Classic al Course at the time. They took what was called the Literary Course that could be completed two years sooner than the Classical Course but which did not entitle them to a degree. They simply received a certificate.” (A Colored Woman In A White World)
Her friends told her that Greek was difficult and unwomanly. Additionally, they said it would curtail hr from the fun activities she could enjoy in college and most importantly it might ruin her chances of getting a husband.
“They argued I would not be happy if I knew more than my husband…”
Mary Church was a highly successful student as her studies progressed. She also formed important friendships in college and stressed the importance of a mixed school.
“It helped both the white girl and the colored girl to form a close friendship with a girl of a different race. After having been closely associated with a colored girl whose standards of conduct were similar to her own and those whose personality appealed to her strongly, that white girl could never entertain the feeling of scorn, contempt or aversion for colored people that she might otherwise have had.” .” (A Colored Woman In a White World)
1885 – 1887 Taught at Wilberforce University
Upon graduation, Terrell secured a position at Wilberforce University where she taught for two years. She had to rebel against her father’s wishes to do so.
“Situated as I was I could not put the college education I had taken such pains to acquire to any good use. I was not actively engaged in any work outside of my home and my father did not approve of my doing so.”
“In fact several desirable positions were offered to me. The heads of the institutions for colored youth were beginning to insist that the teachers employed should be college graduates.” (A Colored Woman In a White World p. 20)
During her first year teaching at Wilberforce she heard from her father only once. Fortunately, he forgave her.
“When the train pulled into the station there on the platform waiting for me was my handsome, dearly-beloved father, who literally received me with open arms…I left home and ran the risk of permanently alienating my father from myself precisely to engage in the work which his money had prepared me to do. .” (A Colored Woman In a White World P. 23)
1887-88- Taught at High School for Colored Youth, Washington, D.C.
At the close of her second year in Wilberforce a very wealthy and delightful woman invited her to go abroad. She was in the midst of planning her trip when she was invited to teach at the colored High School in Washington, D.C..” It was difficult to turn down her chance to study overseas, but her career and sense of duty won.
Once she reached D.C. she heard a great deal about the first colored man to graduate from Harvard. His name was Robert Herberton Terrell.
“He was described to me as being tall, very good-looking and splendid company on general principles. He loved to dance and was quite a favorite among the girls, of course.” (A Colored Woman In a White World P. 25)
Terrell had charge of the Latin Department in the High School and Mary Church was designated to assist him.
“And never since the dawn of creation did two teachers of the same subject get along more harmoniously and with less friction than that did that head of the Latin Department in the Colored High School of Washington, D.C. and his assistant.” (A Colored Woman In a White World P. 23)
1888-1890 Studied and traveled in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy
Mary Church took a two-year leave of absence to study in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Both of her parents met her there at different times.
Long before the summer vacation my father had assured me definitely that he intended to fulfill his promise to me to go abroad with me. He let me make the arrangements to suit myself.
As luck had it, Isabella Beecher Hooker, the half sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe was a passenger on the City of Berlin on which Mary Church sailed.
“She became so interested in me that she gave me letters of introduction to some of the most influential people in Paris, thereby rendering me a service which few others would have done. These letters from Mrs. Hooker were an open sesame to me whenever and wherever I presented them. Among the fifteen Cook tourists in our group were some of the most interesting and clever people imaginable. Several of the men were congregational ministers who were delightful companions and were as far removed from the stereotype idea of a parson as one can imagine. (A Colored Woman In a White World)
Mary Church writes in detail about her time in Europe, offering vibrant accounts of suitors, studies and adventures that are well worth reading.
1890-1891-Resumed teaching, High School for Colored Youth, Washington, D.C.
On her return to Washington, D.C., Mary church and Robert Terrell continued working together although the relationship became increasingly personal.
“I enjoyed assisting him in the Latin department so much, I made up my mind to assist him in all departments for the rest of my natural life” (A Colored Woman In a White World P. 102)
In 1891 they were married. Their wedding was a spectacular affair. But they faced difficulty in the first five years of the marriage with three children who died soon after birth.
“The summer after my marriage I was desperately ill and my life was despaired of. My recovery was nothing short of a miracle and my case is recorded in medical history…
I was tormented by the thought that the baby’s life might have been saved. I could not help feeling that certain methods used in caring for the little thing had caused its untimely end…
The maternal instinct was always abnormally developed in me. As far back as I can remember, I have been very fond of children. I have never seen a baby, no matter what its color, class or condition…” (A Colored Woman In a White World P. 63)
1890’s-Her Prominence In Activism Escalated
Despite these losses, she and her husband remained deeply in love and committed to each other. Robert Terrell supported and encouraged her in all aspects of her career.
1892- She became the first woman president of “Bethel Literary and Historical Society,” the Washington, D.C. black debate organization.
1892-She founded the Colored Women’s League of Washington.
1895-1901 –Served on District of Columbia School Board. Mary Church Terrell was the first black woman to be a member of the board.
“Shortly after my third baby was born and lost I had received a great honor. Congress had empowered the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to appoint three women to serve on the Board of Education. Since colored people at that time comprised one third of the population of the District of Columbia. …” (A Colored Woman In a White World P. 63)
“All the direful predictions made by Doubting Thomases that white women would not work on a Board of Education with a colored woman were false. There was no friction whatever between us on account of race. Nobody patronized me on account of my color and nobody seemed to object to any opinion I expressed because it came from a colored woman. It happened that I was the only member of the Board, white or colored, who had ever taught in the Public Schools.” (A Colored Woman In a White World P. 65)
She was reappointed to serve on District of Columbia School Board from 1906-1911.
1896-Terrell was instrumental in the merger of the Colored Women’s League of Washington with the National Federation of Afro-American Women to form the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). Members from both original organizations elected Terrell as the first president of the organization.
1890-1920 Terrell was a respected voice in the woman’s suffrage movement.
At the National Woman Suffrage Association Convention in 1890, she famously called attention to the “dual burden” faced by Black women:
“A White Woman has only one handicap to overcome—a great one, true, her sex; a colored woman faces two—her sex and her race.”
She Was Internationally Respected As Author, Speaker And Activist
Mary Church Terrell was an accomplished author and speaker, both in America and abroad. She also worked with many prominent activists of her time including Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells and W.E.B. Du Bois.
Following are just a few of her widely known speeches.
Mary Church Terrell delivered her first presidential speech to the National Association Of Colored Women (NACW) in Nashville on September 15, 1897. “In Union There Is Strength” is a stirring plea for unity, activism, and racial pride.
“In the unprecedented advancement made by the Negro since his emancipation, we take great pride and extract therefore both courage and hope. From a condition of dense ignorance, but thirty years ago, we have advanced so far in the realm of knowledge and letters as to have produced scholars and authors of repute. Though penniless as a race a short while ago, we have among us today a few men of wealth and multitudes who own their homes and make comfortable livings. We therefore challenge any other race to present a record more creditable and show a progress more wonderful than that made by the ex slaves of the United States and that too in the face of prejudice, proscription, and persecution against which no other people has ever had to contend in the history of the world.
Ahead of her times in social thinking, Terrell considered the children raised in bad environments as innocent victims and called for free kindergartens across America.
“As an organization of women, surely nothing can be nearer our hearts than the children, many of whose lives so sad and dark we might brighten and bless.“
“It is our duty to improve those conditions.”
The entire speech is available here.
1904 – “Lynching from a Negro’s Point of View” was first published in the North American Review.
“Everybody who is well informed on the subject of lynching knows that many a negro who has been accused of assault or murder, or other violation of the law, and has been tortured to death by a mob, has afterward been proved innocent of the crime with which he was charged. So great is the thirst for the negro’s blood in the South, that but a single breath of suspicion is sufficient to kindle into an all-consuming flame the embers of hatred ever smoldering in the breasts of the fiends who compose a typical mob. When once such a bloodthirsty company starts on a negro’s trail, and the right one cannot be found, the first available specimen is sacrificed to their rage, no matter whether he is guilty or not.“
The entire article is available here.
1906-She delivered “What It Means To Be Colored In The Capital Of The United States” to the United Women’s Club of Washington, D.C. I Her impassioned and highly personal speech reflects the experiences of other Black American Trailblazers who excelled against all odds.
“As a colored woman I might enter Washington any night, a stranger in a strange land, and walk miles without finding a place to lay my head. Unless I happened to know colored people who live here or ran across a chance acquaintance who could recommend a colored boarding-house to me, I should be obliged to spend the entire night wandering about. Indians, Chinamen, Filipinos, Japanese and representatives of any other dark race can find hotel accommodations, if they can pay for them. The colored man alone is thrust out of the hotels of the national capital like a leper.
As a colored woman I may walk from the Capitol to the White House, ravenously hungry and abundantly supplied with money with which to purchase a meal, without finding a single restaurant in which I would be permitted to take a morsel of food, if it was patronized by white people, unless I were willing to sit behind a screen. As a colored woman I cannot visit the tomb of the Father of this country, which owes its very existence to the love of freedom in the human heart.”
The entire speech is available here.
She Remained An Activist Until Her Death.
In 1950, Mary Church Terrell and a number of her colleagues filed a lawsuit against Washington, D.C.’s Thompson Restaurant for refusing to serve them because of their race.
D.C. segregation was officially challenged and declared unconstitutional in 1953.
Terrell died in Annapolis, Maryland in 1954.
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