Mary Church Terrell was born September 23, 1863 to freed slaves and entrepreneurs, Robert Reed Church and Louisa Ayres Church. Her father was the son of a white slave owner who allowed Robert to keep the wages he earned working on a ship while he was held as a slave. Robert Reed Church later became the first black millionaire in the U.S. south following the Civil War Reconstruction era as he became a major real estate investor. Mary’s mother, Louisa Ayres Church, owned a hair salon.
Growing up in a rather affluent home with parents committed to her education, Mary Church Terrell was able to earn a bachelor’s degree in classics and master’s degree in education from Oberlin College. She studied on a four year track, typically reserved for men, as women were expected to only take two years of courses. She was one of the first black women to earn a college degree. She began teaching in 1885 and later went to Europe, where she learned French, Italian, and German.
She became the first black woman to serve on the DC Board of Education (1895-1906). Mary Church Terrell was an activist and one of the charter members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP). The NAACP( was founded in order to address the ways race compounds inequality in American society. Terrell became a major figure in the fight for civil rights and became good friends with Frederick Douglass. Mary considered stepping away from activism to focus on her family – she had a daughter and later adopted another – but Frederick Douglass convinced her the movement needed her.
As the first President of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), Terrell fought for women of color’s right to equality. She believed in intersectional feminism and fought for more than the issues mainstream white feminists cared about, because she understood inequality was multifaceted and disadvantaged women of color the most. Her autobiography, “A Colored Woman in a White World” was published in 1940 and examined the intersection of sex and race and her experiences at Oberlin College as a white-passing black woman.