Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) was one of the most remarkable women of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Active in both the civil rights movement and the campaign for women's suffrage, Terrell was a leading spokesperson for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the first president of the National Association of Colored Women, and the first black woman appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education and the American Association of University Women. She was also a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In this autobiography, originally published in 1940, Terrell describes the important events and people in her life.Terrell began her career as a teacher, first at Wilberforce College and then at a high school in Washington, D.C., where she met her future husband, Robert Heberton Terrell. After marriage, the women's suffrage movement attracted her interests and before long she became a prominent lecturer at both national and international forums on women's rights. A gifted speaker, she went on to pursue a career on the lecture circuit for close to thirty years, delivering addresses on the critical social issues of the day, including segregation, lynching, women's rights, the progress of black women, and various aspects of black history and culture. Her talents and many leadership positions brought her into close contact with influential black and white leaders, including Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Robert Ingersoll, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Jane Addams, and others. With a new introduction by Debra Newman Ham, professor of history at Morgan State University, this new edition of Mary Church Terrell's autobiography will be of interest to students and scholars of both women's studies and African American history.
Foreword, Debra Newman Ham Introduction My Parents Early Childhood I am Sent North to School My Parents Send Me to Oberlin, Ohio I Enter Oberlin College Activities During College Course I Go to Memphis, Teach Wilberforce and Washington and Go Abroad I Study in Germany In Europe with Mother and Brother I Leave Berlin and Go to Florence I Return to the United States With Frederick Douglass and Paul Dunbar at the World's Fair Buying a Home Under Difficulties Learning to Cook and Entertaining Guests The Commissioners of the National Capital Appoint Me a Member of the School Board The National American Woman Suffrage Association Invites Me to Speak Club Work On the Lecture Platform Notable Lecture Engagements Prince Henry of Prussia, Dr. Brooker T. Washington In Berlin, Germany Distinguished People I Met Abroad My Efforts to Succeed as a Writer My Children and I My Experience as a Clerk in a Government Department Efforts in Senate to Prevent Judge Terrell's Confirmation The Secretary of War Suspends Order Dismissing Colored Soldiers at My Request Harriet Beecher Stowe Centenary and My Sally into Spiritualism Trying to Get a Colored Girl into an Academy in the North Traveling Under Difficulties Political Activities-Charged with Disorderly Conduct Work in War Camp Community Service Delegate to the International Peace Congress Meeting Old Friends and New-Plus a Dose of Race Prejudice Administered by My Countrymen A Week-end Visit with Mr. and Mrs. H. G.Wells-I Meet Other Distinguished People in England Employed by Ruth Hanna McCormick to Help in Her Campaign for the United States Senate. Abroad with My Daughter A Few Cases of Friction Crossing the Color Line The Colored Man's Paradise Social Activities I Address the International Assembly of the World Fellowship of Faiths in London and Meet Haile Selassie Carrying On Index
