Mary Church Terrell was an early civil rights advocate, an educator, an author, and a lecturer on woman suffrage and rights for African Americans. An early advocate of women’s rights, Terrell was an active member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, addressing in particular the concerns of black women. In 1896, she became the first president of the newly formed National Association of Coloured Women, an organization that under her leadership, worked to achieve educational and social reform, and an end to discriminatory practices. Appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education in 1895, Terrell was the first black woman to hold such a position.
Mary was an articulate spokeswoman, efficient political organizer, and prolific writer. She addressed a wide range of social issues in her long career. Her last act as an activist was to lead a successful three-year struggle against segregation in public eating places and hotels in the nation’s capital. Do you know what segregation is? It is the forced separation of a race in a community or country. In those days, segregation existed in many parts of the USA, and coloured people were kept separate from the whites in public places. This unfair system was finally abolished thanks to the work of brave people like Mary.