About Mary Church Terrell
Mary "Mollie" Eliza Church Terrell (born Mary Church; September 23, 1863 – July 24, 1954) was an American civil rights activist, journalist, teacher and one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. She taught in the Latin Department at the M Street School (now known as Paul Laurence Dunbar High School)—the first African American public high school in the nation—in Washington, DC. In 1895, she was the first African-American woman in the United States to be appointed to the school board of a major city, serving in the District of Columbia until 1906. Terrell was a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909) and the Colored Women's League of Washington (1892). She helped found the National Association of Colored Women (1896) and served as its first national president, and she was a founding member of the National Association of College Women (1923). She was a pioneering African American civil rights activist, educator, and suffragist who championed racial and gender equality throughout her life. == Early life and education == Mary Church was born September 23, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Robert Reed Church and Louisa Ayres, both freed slaves of mixed racial ancestry (Robert's father and maternal grandfather, and Louisa's father, were white). They were the offspring of enslaved women and white slave owners; neither was set free until the Civil War's conclusion. After the Civil War, Louisa opened a store selling wigs and hair extensions, which gave the family financial security. Robert opened a saloon; when he was denied a license due to his race, he successfully sued the State of Tennessee for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1866. After the Memphis massacre of 1866 and yellow fever epidemic of 1878, he bought property around Beale Street becoming one of the first black millionaires in the American South and an influential member of the Republican party.
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