Oberlin's Women: A Legacy of Leadership & Activism

Mary Church Terrell

Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954, OC 1884) was a political activist who fought for racial equality and women’s suffrage. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1884, where she completed the Classical Course. After graduating, Terrell worked as a teacher at Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio. In 1887, she began work at the M Street Colored High School in Washington, D.C. Terrell received a Master of Arts degree from Oberlin College in 1888. She married a fellow teacher at the M Street school, Heberton Terrell, in 1891. Terrell began fighting for racial equality in 1892. She joined the Ida B. Wells-Barnnett anti-lynching campaign and helped found the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) in 1896. Terrell was president of that association from 1896 to 1901. She was also a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and a co-founder of the National Association of University Women. Into the 1940s and 1950s, Terrell fought for civil rights and racial equality. She became the first African American member of the American Association of University Women in 1948.

For more information about Mary Church Terrell, please visit the Mary Church Terrell: An Original Oberlin Activist exhibit:
https://terrell.oberlincollegelibrary.org/scalar/mct/index

Sources:
Student File (Mary Church Terrell), Alumni & Development Records, O.C.A.

 

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