NCNW Celebrates Women's History Month

According to the National Women's History Project, in 1987 Congress was petitioned to expand the week of March 8, which was known as International Women's Day, to the entire month of March. Since then, the National Women's History Month Resolution has been approved with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.

Acknowledging the achievements of women and their contributions to American society is an important aspect of what NCNW is all about. Not only does this help strengthen the sisterhood that we have as women, but helps motivate and inspire future generations of girls and young women to achieve greater heights.

Every week, NCNW will spotlight an African American woman who has contributed not only to NCNW history, but to the general fabric of our lives. These women made great sacrifices and tremendous strides in women’s rights, worker’s rights, as well as human right.

MARY ELIZA CHURCH TERRELL

Mary Eliza Church Terrell was an early civil rights advocate, an educator and a lecturer on woman suffrage. Born to wealth in 1863, Terrell majored in classics at Oberlin College, where she received her bachelor's degree in 1884.* On October 18, 1891, in Memphis, Tennessee, she married Robert Heberton Terrell, who was a graduate of Groton Academy, Groton, Massachusetts and a magna cum laude graduate in the class of 1884 of Harvard University.**

After her marriage, Mary Church Terrell made her home in Washington, DC and maintained a summer home at Highland Beach, Maryland.** A high school teacher and principal, Ms. Terrell was appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education, the first black woman in the United States to hold such a position.*

She became active in the feminist movement, founding the Colored Woman's League in 1892.** this organization eventually merged with the National Federation of Afro-American Women in 1896 and changed its name to the National Federation of Colored Women. Terrell was elected the first president. As one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Terrell became nationally known both for her support of women's suffrage and her opposition to racial segregation.*

Terrell was actively involved in the international women's movement. She represented colored women on the American delegation to the International Congress of Women at Berlin in 1904 and was the only women to deliver her address in English, German, and French. She also received international recognition as a speaker on the program at the Zurich Quinquennial International Peace Conference held in 1919.

Ms. Terrell was one of the women leaders present for the organizing of the National Council of Negro women in 1935.

In 1940, she wrote her autobiography, A Colored Woman In A White World.**

On July 24, 1954, Mary Church Terrell died at age 90, after a brief illness.**

Resources:
*    Library of Congress
**  Tennessee State University Library Archives