Mary Church Terrell Papers

Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954)

Mary Church Terrell, born Mary Eliza Church, was a writer, educator, and activist. Born in Memphis, Tennessee on September 23, 1863, her mother, Louisa Ayres Church, owned a hair salon, while her father, Robert Reed Church, was the first black millionaire in the South due to his business and real estate dealings. Terrell’s parents, both former slaves, divorced when she and her brother, Thomas, were young. Their father eventually remarried.

At the age of six, Mary Church’s parents enrolled her in elementary school at the Antioch College laboratory school in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She attended both the Oberlin Academy and Oberlin College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Languages in 1884. She earned a Master's degree from Oberlin four years later. From 1885 to 1887, Terrell taught at Wilberforce College (now Wilberforce University) in Ohio. She then moved to Washington, D.C. to join the faculty at M Street Colored High School (later the Dunbar High School), where she met Robert Heberton Terrell, chairman of the school’s language department. In 1888, Mary Church traveled to Europe for two years to study French, German, and Italian. After returning to Washington, she and Robert H. Terrell were married in 1891.

In 1892, she learned that Thomas Moss, a close friend from Memphis, had been lynched, and this inspired her to become a social activist. She helped form the Colored Women’s League in Washington to address social problems facing black communities. Four years later, Terrell helped create the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), and became its first president. The NACW adopted the motto, “Lifting As We Climb,” and promoted racial uplift through education and community activism. During her tenure as president of the NACW, from 1896 to 1901, Terrell became a well-known speaker and writer in the United States and overseas. Terrell served on Washington’s Board of Education in an unpaid position from 1895 to 1901, and again from 1906 to 1911.  In 1909, Terrell signed the charter that established the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People (NAACP).

In 1910, Mary Church Terrell became one of the founders of the College Alumnae Club, which was later named the National Association of University Women (NAUW). Created to promote and encourage professional achievements among women and participation in civic issues, the organization continues to work nationally and internationally on matters related to education, women’s rights, child welfare, and healthcare.

In addition to founding and chairing numerous organizations, Terrell also used her writing to advance her social and political interests. Her scholarly articles, poems, and short stories about race and gender appeared in numerous journals and magazines. In 1940 she published her autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World, which details her own battles with gender and race discrimination in the United States.

After World War II, Terrell joined the burgeoning efforts to end legal segregation in Washington, D.C. She lived to see the desegregation of eating facilities in the capital city, which occurred in 1953. One year later, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

Mary Church and Robert Terrell had one daughter, Phyllis, and later adopted Church’s brother’s daughter, Mary Louise. Both daughters briefly attended Oberlin College during the 1913-14 academic year. Mary’s brother, Thomas, also attended Oberlin College (see the separate biographical sketch).

Mary Church Terrell died in Highland Beach, Maryland, on July 24, 1954. She was 90 years old.

Thomas Ayers Church (1867-1937)

Thomas Ayers Church, the brother of Mary Church Terrell, was born in 1867 to Louisa Ayers Church and Robert Reed Church. His parents sent him from his birthplace, Memphis Tennessee, to study at the Oberlin College Preparatory School from 1881 to 1884. After completing his preparatory coursework, Church traveled with his mother to visit his sister in Europe, where she was studying French, German, and Italian. He returned to the United States to enroll in Marietta College, from which he received an A.B. degree in 1890. He then attended Columbia University where he received an LL.B. degree in 1894, followed by an A.M. in 1895. Church was employed by the New York City Magistrates’ Court in the positions of Assistant Court Clerk, Police Clerk Assistant, and Clerk’s Assistant. He was the author of several books, including, The Roller; concerning its health, habits and happiness; its feeding, breeding and training (1921), which he wrote and illustrated.

Thomas Church had one daughter, Mary Louise, who was adopted by his sister in 1905. He later married Anna Tanal, and they had one son, Thomas Jr., who was born in 1927. Thomas Jr. went on to become a prominent immigration lawyer in the state of New York.

Thomas Ayers Church died in 1937.

Note written by Hayley Antell (OC 2009)