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:

    ... no young colored person in the United States today can truthfully offer as an excuse for lack of ambition or aspiration that members of his race have accomplished so little, he is discouraged from attempting anything himself. For there is scarcely a field of human endeavor which colored people have been allowed to enter in which there is not at least one worthy representative.
    —Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)

    I want that head so sanitary and squared away that the Virgin Mary herself would be proud to go in there and take a dump.
    Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)

    Now, honestly: if a large group of ... demonstrators blocked the entrances to St. Patrick’s Cathedral every Sunday for years, making it impossible for worshipers to get inside the church without someone escorting them through screaming crowds, wouldn’t some judge rule that those protesters could keep protesting, but behind police lines and out of the doorways?
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)

    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)