Why Is Mary Church Terrell Important

Mary Church Terrell- A Fight for Justice and Equality

Can you imagine being born during two of the most important turns in African American history? There is one lady that lived to experience those two important events in African American history. Known as Mollie to her family, Mary Church Terrell was born nine months after the issue of the Emancipation of Proclamation and died two months after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. Terrell was a civil right leader and educator. She organized groups, lectured, and fought to better the lives of African American women throughout her life. Terrell recognized the limitations that African Americans had in mainstream society because of their race and gender.

Mary Church Terrell was born on September 23, 1863, nine months after the Emancipation of Proclamation was issued, in Memphis, Tennessee. Her parents, Robert and Louisa Church, were both former slaves. Born into wealth, Mary Church Terrell never wanting for anything and lived a privilege life unlike most African America children born in the South during that time. Due to his business and real estate dealings, Mary’s father was the first black millionaire in the South and her mother owned a hair salon. Her parents divorced was she was four years old.

Terrell and her brother was

It was during her first couple of years as a public speaker when she spoke before the International Congress of Women. She felt a special responsibility to do well being that she was the only women of color at the Congress. The European representatives were complaining about how the English and Americans were speaking in English. A language that majority of them did not speak. Mary Church Terrell was fluent in German, French, and Italian but hadn’t spoken it in fifteen years. That didn’t stop her from being the only American to address the Congress in German and also deliver her second speech in