Mary Church Terrell Essay

Improved Essays
Mary Church Terrell was an early advocate and spokesperson for the civil rights, and the suffrage movement, and was also selected as President and charter member of the NAACP which was founded 1896. Mary was a writer, educator, and activist also served as the organization’s first president and focused on educational and social reforms.. Mary also known as “Mollie” to her family was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in September 23, 1863. The daughter of a successful business owner by the name of Louisa Ayres Church owned a hair salon while Church’s daddy ( Robert Reed Church ) owned a business and deals with real estate became the first black millionaire. Church’s lived a privileged life due to the success of her parents who both were former slaves …show more content…
Terrell followed in and talked also about her appearance. The older girls responded by throwing racist insults at her. Terrell stood up for herself in front of the group of white females and assured that she was proud to be an African American women and would not want to change that. The treatment she was encountering made her think about her own behavior toward other minorities. She realized that insults and negative comments toward people were wrong regardless of their race, gender, or nationality. From that moment forward she decided not to embrace the discrimination by society. In 1875 at the age of twelve, Terrell moved to Oberlin, Ohio to begin her high school education. She attended Oberlin Academy and Oberlin College. There, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Languages. In 1884, she became the first black African-American women to earn a college degree. Mary later went back to Oberlin and earned her Master's degree. Mary met her husband Robert Herberton Terrell who was the first black municipal judge in Washington, D.C because of his talents in attorney. Mary and Robert got married and moved to Washington D.C. In D.C Terrell got involved in the Women’s rights movement. Her main focus was the right to vote for women but when she found a way she added that African-American especially. She spoke about the issues often and with other members of the National

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Loreta Janeta Velázquez was a woman of great ambition, skill, and courage who lived and fought during the American Civil War. She disguised herself as a man so that she could join a nearby regiment in the Confederacy and later became a spy to scout out Union strategies and other information that would be useful. All of Velázquez’s experiences are described in her autobiography, The Woman in Battle: A Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures, and Travels of Madame Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Otherwise Known as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford, Confederate States Army. Loreta Janeta Velázquez was born in Cuba in 1842. At the age of seven, she moved to New Orleans for schooling, and seven years later she eloped with an officer in Texas.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It made her question the supposed difference between been black and white; frankly, to her the skin color did not 3 matter. She had made two white friends, Katie, and Bill, a first for her; developing a close relationship with them who in turn allowed her to ride their bikes and skates. It so happened that Essie’s mother always took her…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mary Shadd Research Paper

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages

    She began her own integrated school in Windsor, Ontario, until the entire Shadd family relocated with Mary to Chatham. Here, Mary began her own newspaper company named “The Provincial Freeman.” It was revolutionary, as she was the first female African in North America and the first female in Canada to do so. The Provincial Freeman encouraged blacks, whether free or fugitives, to emigrate to Canada. While in Canada, she also met Thomas F. Cary and married, having two children before his untimely death only a few years later.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    She graduated in 1973, and as a honors student, she was accepted into Stanford University at the age of sixteen on a National Achievement Scholarship. At Stanford, she studied a dual major in Chemical Engineering and African and Afro-American Studies. She also participated in many extracurricular activities including serving as the first female leader of the Black Student Union. After graduating from Stanford, she enrolled in Cornell University Medical College. While there, she studied abroad in Cuba and Kenya and worked at a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand.…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mary Church Terrell There is a girl that was made to go to New York at age six for a better educational opportunity. This little girl’s name was Mary Church Terrell. Throughout Mary’s life she accomplished many things such as founding the National Association of Colored Women, becoming the first African-American woman ever appointed to a school board, and even placed on a committee to serve as someone to investigate police mistreatment on African Americans.…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She developed a strong influence that would allow her to speak alongside former President…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Mary Mcleod Bethune was an equal parts educator, politician, and social visionary. She was known as “The First Lady of the Struggle,” most of her career was devoted to improving the lives of African Americans through education, political, and economic empowerment. Mrs.Bethune was born into slavery, this means that she could not get any education. At the young age of 12 she was finally able to go to school and get an education. This is why Mrs.Bethune wanted to be an educator for African Americans.…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Intro Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first African American woman to be trained as a professional nurse. She was one out of only four of the 42 applicants to the nursing program to receive the coveted diploma in 1879 (Chayer, 1971). Mary was born and alive in 1845 during the times of slavery, The Civil war, and the abolition movement (Darraj, 2005). Background Mary was born May 7th, 1845 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. It was also rumored that she was really born in Roxbury, Massachusetts but she is known for growing up mainly in the Boston area.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Women's Suffrage Dbq

    • 1777 Words
    • 8 Pages

    On May 10th, 1866, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony establish the American Equal Rights Association. On July 28, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was approved and women aren’t given the right to vote. It also grants citizenship to male African Americans, but not to women. Two very important women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony strongly disapprove the amendment since it specifies citizens as “male.” In May 1869,…

    • 1777 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    They know they are being mistreated, but they don’t know why. Cassie, a young black girl, was in line in front of whites at a store. She wasn't being waited on and she didn’t know why. She asked why she wasn’t being waited on, and the store clerk got angry at her. This is when she realized that things will always be different for her because she was black.…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Captivity in Different Eras At first glance, one might assume that an author publishing her works in 1682 would have no realistic chance of sharing a common message as a man publishing his story one hundred and seventy-three years later in 1855. However, captivity narratives have been popular topics throughout history which enjoyed a wide readership. Despite their separation in in the gulf of time, Mary Rowlandson and Herman Melville shared similar experiences in witnessing captivity at the hands of two cultures and the violence that came with these experiences. While the New World offered an abundance of social and financial potential, it simultaneously fostered the negative aspects of human nature.…

    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mellie Grant Essay

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I like complicated women. I'm drawn to characters that go against the grain. I always have been. I rooted for Miss Havisham to exact her revenge via Estelle and I loved Veronica Sawyer, from Heathers, because the bitchy girls and crude bullies she dealt with on a daily basis, got their comeuppance. But I mostly love these characters because of their flaws.…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Society has a significant effect on education. How society develops reflects the ideas and changes education undergoes. Society has always shaped education and has also influenced how people view children and the importance of their learning. The Age of Enlightenment was a key period of shaping modern day concepts surrounding education as many ideas surrounding education were challenged at this time. During this period the belief for freedom and rights was a main component people believed was essential for a change in education.…

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    This paper presents a supplemental exploration on the Eighteenth century feminist philosopher, Mary Wollstonecraft. Specifically, it argues that Wollstonecraft’s political and sociological views are radical for her time. Additionally, this paper hypothesizes that Wollstonecraft’s vision suggests she believes the classic contract theorists include women in their conceptions of the social contract theory on the basis of their unfounded claims that women are irrational beings and deserving of justifiable subordination.…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Mary Turner Thesis

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sandy Hom Ms. Shelly Long English 12 H Poverty and the Onset of Psychosis Ever since the start of human settlements, different socioeconomic statuses have coexisted in every civilisation and society as humans struggle to survive in this world. Poverty is a universal theme that is found in every society that are comprised of people from different socioeconomic statuses. Often times, those from the lower levels of the social pyramid are constantly challenged by economic difficulties, which also pose negative impact on their mental health.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays