Mary Church Terrell

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Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954) was an American civil rights activist, educator, and journalist. She was among the first African American women to earn a college degree and used her education to fight for racial and gender equality.

Early life and education
Mary Church was born on September 23, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee, to parents who had been enslaved but were free by then. Her father, Robert Reed Church, became a successful Black businessman, and her mother, Louisa Ayres, helped support the family. After her parents’ divorce, Mary moved with her mother to New York City and then to Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she began studying German. The family later settled in Oberlin, Ohio, where Mary finished public school and then attended Oberlin College. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1884 and a Master of Arts in 1888, becoming one of the early African American women to complete a college degree. She also studied in Europe for two years.

Career and marriage
Terrell began teaching modern languages at Wilberforce University and later taught Latin at M Street High School in Washington, DC. In 1891, she married Robert Heberton Terrell and resigned from her position at the M Street School. In 1895 she became the superintendent of schools on the District of Columbia Board of Education, the first African American woman to hold such a post. She served in that role until 1906 and then focused more on activism and writing.

Activism and organizations
Terrell helped start the Colored Women’s League in Washington, DC, in 1892. This group helped lead to the formation of the National Association of Colored Women (founded in 1896), where she served as its first national president. She was also a founding member of the NAACP (1909) and played a key role in linking Black women’s clubs to broader civil rights and education reforms. She helped found the College Women’s groups that would become the National Association of University Women (founded in 1923, later NAUW). Terrell was a dedicated suffragist and worked with leaders from the National American Woman Suffrage Association, including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She spoke out about the “double burden” faced by Black women and pushed for an integrated approach to voting rights. Terrell also supported the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, helping to organize and empower Black women in higher education.

Desegregation and later campaigns
In her later years, Terrell led efforts to end racial segregation in Washington, DC, including the fight against segregated eating places. The District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. (1953) ended restaurant segregation in DC, a campaign in which Terrell played a leading role through boycott, picketing, and legal action. She remained active in social justice work well into her eighties.

Writings and legacy
Terrell was a prolific writer and journalist. She published articles under the pen name Euphemia Kirk and contributed to a wide range of newspapers and magazines. Her notable writings include an essay collection and her autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World (1940), in which she described her experiences with racism and gender discrimination. She also wrote about lynching from a Black perspective, arguing against the prejudices used to justify such violence.

Death and honors
Mary Church Terrell died on July 24, 1954, in Annapolis, Maryland, just after witnessing the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Her legacy lives on in the many organizations she helped build and the ongoing fight for civil rights and gender equality. She has been honored in numerous ways, including having Oberlin College name its main library after her (2018) and being inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame (2020). A 2009 U.S. postage stamp recognized her contributions to civil rights and women's rights.