Mary Church Terrell was born on September 23, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee. Terrell’s parents were previously enslaved and after gaining their freedom sought opportunities that would make them successful. Terrell’s father, Robert Reed Church, became the South’s first African-American millionaire. He had invested in real estate and was the founder of the first black-owned bank in Memphis, Solvent Savings Bank, which gave African-Americans credit to start businesses. Her mother, Louisa Ayers, owned a luxury hair salon in New York City. In addition, she had one brother named Thomas Ayres Church. Her parents were philanthropists and invested their wealth in the Black community to create parks and recreational facilities.
Education was very important to her family and they ensured that Terrell would receive the best education possible, but segregation was rampant in the South. As a result, Terrell went to Antioch College Preparatory School in Ohio. Then, from 1880 to 1884, she attended Oberlin College to receive her bachelor’s in Classics. Upon earning her degree, she became one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. In 1888, she earned her master’s from Oberlin in education. Oberlin College, a private liberal arts college, was the first college in the United States to admit African-Americans and women. Terrell began her career as a teacher at Wilberforce College in Ohio before moving to Washington D.C. to teach at M Street High School, one of the first public high schools in the United States that taught African-Americans. In 1895, the District of Columbia’s Board of Education selected her for a position on their board. This made her the first African-American woman to serve on a board of education. Terrell believed that education was important for African-Americans to advance socially and economically.
Terrell married Robert Heberton Terrell in 1891. He was a lawyer who graduated from Harvard University with his undergraduate degree and then received his Juris Doctor degree at Howard University, School of Law. He became the first Black Municipal Court Judge in the United States. They had three children together, though their daughter Phyliss, was their only child to reach adulthood. In 1896, she co-founded the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACW), alongside Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, other influential African American female figures of the time. The NACW was formed with the purpose of promoting social reform and equality for African-Americans. Terrell served as the first president of the NACW. During this time, she organized anti-lynching campiagns with Ida B. Wells, an activist and founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, after the lynching of Thomas Moss, who was one of her former friends.
Terrell would continue to be involved in activism as she campaigned for women’s rights, specifically, women’s suffrage. During the women’s rights movement, Terrell picketed the White House alongside women from the National Women’s Party. She had been vocal long before the Women’s Suffrage Movement. In 1891, during the first National Council of Women convention, attendees were asked to stand if they believed that women should have the right to vote, very few stood up, but Terrell rose. Then, during another convention for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she caught the attention of Susan B. Anthony when she advocated for the association to include the issues women of color were facing in their resolution. Terrell would also try to convince other prominent suffragists like Alice Paul to include Black women in the fight for the right to vote. However, Alice Paul would ignore Terrell and other black suffragists, intentionally excluding them during marches and demonstrations by segregating them to the back. Terrell never gave up and continuously became the voice of disenfranchised Black women and the violence they faced from lynching, Jim Crow laws as well as a fierce advocate of the importance of their suffrage. In 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed and while White women gained the right to vote, Black women remained disenfranchised and were not supported by white suffragists.
Nonetheless, Terrell successfully sued organizations for racial discrimination. In 1946, she attempted to reactivate her membership at the American Association of University Women, but was denied. She won the lawsuit against them which changed their policy about admitting members based on race. In 1949, she became the chairwoman for the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the District of Columbia Anti-Discrimination Laws. The organization was intended to enforce anti-discrimination laws, and during her time as chairwoman, she led protests and picket lines against businesses that used segregation. In 1950, she was involved in the Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., which the Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for public places in Washington D.C. to segregate customers. This was a historic win for the civil rights movement and was one that would lay the foundation for future Supreme Court cases like Brown v. Board of Education. Terrell’s legacy was honored by Washington D.C residents at her 90th birthday party which held over 700 guests, many of whom were African-Americans and representatives from the Eisenhower Administration. There, it was announced the creation of the Mary Church Terrell Fund, which was dedicated to raising money to rid of segregation in Washington D.C.. In 1954, Tarrell died of cancer at age 90, months after Brown v. Board of Education ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, a landmark outcome for the civil rights movement. Terrell was a force of change that championed women's rights, civil rights, and for the economic and educational advancement of African-Americans.
Why Did I Choose to Research Mary Church Terrell?
I chose to research Mary Church Terrell because I briefly learned about her in my history class when the topic of the Women’s Suffrage Movement came up. I learned about the history of picketing and how Black suffragists were segregated to the back despite being so devoted to the cause. They were ignored by their fellow suffragists when they brought up issues of black women’s suffrage and the barriers and violence they faced for trying to exercise the right to vote. That side of history is often overlooked and I wanted to research about Black suffragists and explore their experiences and accomplishments. I had come across Terrell and researched her background and was fascinated by all that she had done. Her story deserves to be told as she fought for the women’s right to vote, for the end of Jim Crow laws, and for the educational rights of African-Americans. Her intersectional activism and experiences showcased a nuanced perspective of history that deserves to be known.
Works Cited
Michals, Debra. “Mary Church Terrell.” National Women’s History Museum, National Women’s History Museum, 2017, http://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-church-terrell
Parker, Alison. “Mary Church Terrell: Black Suffragist and Civil Rights Activist (U.S. National Park Service).” Www.nps.gov, 14 Dec. 2020, http://www.nps.gov/articles/000/mary-church-terrell-black-suffragist-and-civil-rights-activist.htm
Vanella, R.E. “The Pragmatic Radicalism of Mary Church Terrell | Delaware Call.” Delawarecall.com, 2022, http://delawarecall.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-radicalism-of-mary-church-terrell/
Virginia Commonwealth University. (2012, February 17). Retrieved from Social Welfare History Project website: https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/terrell-mary-church/
This article was published on 10/27/24