Mary “Mollie” Church Terrell
Mary “Mollie” Church Terrell (1863–1954) was a pioneering civil rights activist, journalist, educator, suffragist, and one of the first African American women to earn a college degree. Terrell was a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909) and the Colored Women’s League of Washington (1892). She helped found the National Association of Colored Women (1896) and served as its first national president.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she was educated at Oberlin College (B.A., 1884; M.A., 1888). She taught modern languages at Wilberforce University and Latin at M Street High School (now Paul Laurence Dunbar High School) in Washington, D.C. In 1892, Terrell joined Ida B. Wells-Barnett (2024 Legacy Recognition honoree) and others to form the Colored Women’s League in Washington, D.C. In 1896, the Colored Women’s League joined with the Federation of Afro-American Women to form the National Association of Colored Women, and Terrell served as its first president from 1896–1901. In 1895, she was the first African American woman to be appointed superintendent of the Washington, D.C., school board, and she served until 1906. On February 18, 1898, Terrell gave an address titled “The Progress of Colored Women” at the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Washington, D.C. Terrell addressed the “double burden” of racism and sexism faced by African American women. She was also active in the Republican Party, and was appointed Director of Work among African-American Women of the East by the Republican National Committee for Warren G. Harding’s 1920 presidential campaign.
She had a prolific career as a journalist. In the 1880s and 1890s, sometimes using the pen name Euphemia Kirk, she published in both the Black and white press and promoted the African American Women’s Club Movement. In 1950, Terrell led successful campaigns to desegregate restaurants and theaters in the District of Columbia.
She lived to see the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. She was honored by Oberlin College, which named its main library the Mary Church Terrell Main Library in 2018. Terrell was inducted posthumously into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2020.