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 mary, church and/or terrell:
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)
“Let us pray for the whole state of Christ’s Church Militant here in earth.”
—Book Of Common Prayer, The. Holy Communion, “Prayer for the Church Militant,” (1662)
“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)