Mary Church Terrell

Mary Church Terrell (September 23, 1863 – July 24, 1954), daughter of former slaves, was one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. She became an activist who led several important associations, including the National Associate of Colored Women, and worked for civil rights and suffrage.

Read more about Mary Church Terrell:  Early Life and Education, Career, Legacy and Honors, Works

Famous quotes containing the words church terrell, mary, church and/or terrell:

    Please stop using the word “Negro.”... We are the only human beings in the world with fifty-seven variety of complexions who are classed together as a single racial unit. Therefore, we are really truly colored people, and that is the only name in the English language which accurately describes us.
    —Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)

    Flower picking.
    Hawaiian saying no. 2710, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)

    The legacies that parents and church and teachers left to my generation of Black children were priceless but not material: a living faith reflected in daily service, the discipline of hard work and stick-to-itiveness, and a capacity to struggle in the face of adversity.
    Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)

    I cannot help wondering sometimes what I might have become and might have done if I had lived in a country which had not circumscribed and handicapped me on account of my race, but had allowed me to reach any height I was able to attain.
    —Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)