Mary Church Terrell

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Mary Church Terrell (around 1919)
Mary Church Terrell, painted by Betsy Graves Reyneau in 1946
Plaque in Robert Church Park in Memphis, Tennessee

Mary Eliza Church Terrell , born as Mary Eliza Church (born September 23, 1863 in Memphis , † July 24, 1954 in Annapolis ) was an African-American social reformer and civil rights activist . She was the co-founder of two civil rights organizations and was committed to women's suffrage . To old age she has been actively supporting the rights and equal treatment of African American population and the abolition of racial segregation in the United States one.

Live and act

Her parents were freed slaves . The father, Robert Reed Church (1839-1912), was very successful as a businessman. The mother, Louisa Ayres Church (1844-1911), owned a hairdressing salon. The parents divorced when Mary was a child.

Financially carefree and convinced of the value of education, Mary Church was one of the first African-American women to graduate from Oberlin College , where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1884 and a master's degree in 1888. She taught languages ​​at Wilberforce University , then moved to Washington, DC, and taught at M Street Colored High School from 1887 . After a two-year stay in Europe, she married the lawyer Robert Heberton Terrell (1857–1925) in 1891. The couple had a daughter and an adopted daughter.

The impetus for political activity was the lynching of Thomas Moss (1892), whom she had known personally. Mary Church Terrell was not only involved in initiatives against lynching, but also for the education and equality of the Afro-American population and for women's rights throughout her life . She was a co-founder of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) in 1896 and the first female president of that organization from 1896 to 1901. In 1904 she was the only delegate of African American descent to take part in the World Congress of Women in Berlin , where she was the only participant to give speeches in German, French and English. Together with others, she founded the civil rights organization National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 . She was an active advocate for women's suffrage until this was passed in 1919 with the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution .

In 1940 Church Terrell published her autobiography , A Colored Woman in a White World. In 1946, at the age of 83, she was portrayed by the painter Betsy Graves Reyneau as part of the series Portraits of outstanding Americans of Negro origin . The oil painting is now part of the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

At the advanced age of 85, Mary Church Terrell led protest marches against segregation in restaurants in the early 1950s. She died in Annapolis in the summer of 1954 at the age of 90 and was buried in the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland .

Honors

  • Her portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.
  • Her former home in Washington DC has been designated a National Historic Landmark .
  • Plaque in Robert Church Park in Memphis, Tennessee.

Publications

  • A Colored Woman in a White World. Autobiography. Humanity Books, 1940, ISBN 978-1-591023-22-7 (new edition 2005).

Web links

Commons : Mary Church Terrell  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mary Church Terrell. In: Library of Congress. Retrieved December 5, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Mary Church Terrell (with color illustration of the oil painting). In: National Portrait Gallery. July 24, 1954, accessed December 5, 2018 .
  3. ^ Mary Church Terrell House. In: National Park Service. Retrieved December 5, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Terrell, Mary Church
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Terrell, Mary Eliza Church (full name); Church, Mary Eliza (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American social reformer and civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Memphis
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1954
Place of death Annapolis