Places of Mary Church Terrell

The content for this article was researched and written by Jade Ryerson, an intern with the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.

Mary Church Terrell, ca. 1920. Photo by Harris and Ewing. Collections of the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/item/93516449/)

Mary Church Terrell was a prominent advocate for African American civil rights and African American women’s suffrage. After receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Oberlin College, Terrell relocated to Washington, D.C. to work as a teacher. Living in Washington, D.C. provided Terrell access to other prominent civil rights activists and federal lawmakers.

Through her work with the National Association of Colored Women, later called the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, Terrell promoted racial uplift. She believed that African Americans could be accepted by whites if they received an education and job training. After the lynching of her friend Thomas Moss, Terrell also engaged in anti-lynching and anti-segregation activism. Although Washington, D.C. was the primary base for her activism, Terrell also spoke about women’s rights and international peace across the U.S and in Europe.

^{This map shows locations of the different places featured in this article.}

^{This map shows the sites associated with Mary Church Terrell in Washington, DC.}

M Street High School, Washington, DC. Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid CC BY SA (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M_Street_High_School.jpg)

1. M Street High School

In 1887, Mary Church began teaching Latin at M Street High School in Washington, D.C. After earning her master’s degree in 1888, she studied in Europe for two years to improve her foreign language abilities. During her travels to Germany, Italy, France, and Switzerland, Mary’s handwriting in her diary changed as she switched between French and German. When Mary returned to the U.S., she continued to teach at M Street High School until 1891. That year, she married the chairman of the foreign language department, Robert Terrell. Because married women could not legally work as teachers in Washington, D.C., she resigned from her job. In 1895, Terrell became the first African American appointed to the Washington, D.C. Board of Education.

M Street High School was renamed after the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar when the school relocated to First Street in 1916. M Street High School was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

National Association for Colored Women's Clubs headquarters, Washington, DC. Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid CC BY SA (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:National_Association_of_Colored_Women%27s_Clubs_headquarters.jpg)

2. National Association of Colored Women's Clubs Headquarters

In July 1896, the Colored Women’s League of Washington, D.C., the Woman’s Era Club of Boston, and the National Federation of Afro-American Women merged to form the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). The organization included mostly educated and middle-class African American women led by activists Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Anna Julia Cooper, and Terrell. United under the motto “Lifting as We Climb,” the NACW promoted education, employment, service, and leadership opportunities for all African Americans. Much of Terrell’s work as the first NACW president intersected with her advocacy for Black women’s suffrage. Suffrage was an important goal for many Black women activists who hoped to use their votes to advance racial equality. In 1954, the NACW purchased its current headquarters at 16th and R Street NW in Washington, D.C.

The National Association for Colored Women’s Clubs headquarters is a contributing property in the Sixteenth Street Historic District, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Henry Street Settlement, New York City. Photo by Beyond My Ken CC BY SA (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Street_Settlement_263-267_Henry_Street.jpg)

3. Henry Street Settlement and Neighborhood Playhouse

On May 30, 1909, activists including Terrell, W.E.B. DuBois, and Ida B. Wells, gathered in New York City for the first National Negro Conference. The opening reception was held at the Henry Street Settlement. The group, known as the Niagara Movement, assembled to address racial inequality and the 1908 race riots in Springfield, Illinois.[1] During the conference, the group adopted the name, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It became the foremost African American civil rights organization of the 1900s. Terrell founded and served on the Executive Committee. Within the organization, she continued to support Black women’s rights and contributed to the “Votes for Women” edition of The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, in 1915.

The Henry Street Settlement and Neighborhood Playhouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Founders of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, 1913. Public Domain (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deltasigmathetafounders.jpg)

4. Avenue National Historic Site

In 1913, Terrell and Howard University’s Delta Sigma Theta sorority protested the segregation of the Woman Suffrage Procession on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. The parade’s organizer, Alice Paul, asked Black women to march at the back after white southern suffragists objected to the inclusion of African Americans. When letters of outrage poured in from Black activists across the country, Paul conceded. Terrell and twenty-five members of Delta Sigma Theta marched with the New York delegation, albeit at the back. Because of Terrell’s strong support for Black women’s education, she later received an honorary degree from Howard and became an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta.

Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site was designated a National Historic Site and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

Mary Church Terrell House, Washington, DC in 1933. Historic American Buildings Survey, collections of the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.dc0267.photos/?sp=1)

5. Mary Church Terrell House

Even during her late 80s, Terrell fought for the desegregation of public restaurants in Washington, D.C. In 1949, she chaired the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws. In this role, Terrell worked to reinstate the District’s “lost” anti-discrimination laws from the 1870s. After being refused service at Thompson’s Restaurant near her home in February 1950, Terrell and several colleagues filed a lawsuit at the municipal court. Within three years, the case reached the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Terrell continued to oppose segregation by staging boycotts, picket lines, and sit-ins at other restaurants. By June 1953, the Supreme Court ruled that the segregation of public restaurants in Washington, D.C. was unconstitutional.

The Mary Church Terrell House on T Street was designated a National Historic Landmark and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1933.

Notes:
[1] The 1908 Springfield Race Riot Archaeological Site became part of the African American Civil Rights Network in August 2020.


Selected Sources:
Gordon, Sarah and Pamela Walker. “‘Girls in Caps and Gowns’: The Deltas March for Suffrage.” Women at the Center (blog). Center for Women’s History at the New York Historical Society. Accessed August 20, 2020.

Ovington, Mary White. How the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Began. New York: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1914. Accessed August 21, 2020. Project Gutenberg.

Mansky, Jacqueline. “How One Woman Helped End Lunch Counter Segregation in the Nation’s Capital.” Smithsonian Magazine. Published June 8, 2016. Accessed August 21, 2020.

Social Welfare History Project. “Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954): Educator, Writer, Civil Rights Activist.” Virginia Commonwealth University Library. Published 2012. Accessed August 20, 2020.