Progress of Colored Women

Mary Church Terrell was an icon in the civil rights movement, advocating for equality and social justice for black women through a lifetime of campaigning and eloquent oration.

Famed for being the first black woman to gain a college education in the United States, Mary Terrell put her education to great use. Beginning in the 1890s, she spoke publicly on a range of civil rights which black Americans and black women were deprived. Throughout these efforts, Terrell helped coordinate a series of local movements which campaigned for suffrage and enfranchisement for the black population.

Mary Church Terrell began a trend in the civil rights movement; her language bursting with eloquence and reason, she argued for a better intellectual, social and economic life for black Americans. Black women, who lacked even the right to vote, were compelled to join the cause, which they did in their thousands. Living to the age of 90, Terrell was a bridge between the Reconstruction era and the modern civil rights movement.