A Colored Woman in a White World

Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954)
Draft pages for
A Colored Woman in the White World
Page 2
Typescript pages
Manuscript Division
Gift of Mary Church Terrell (96.3a,b)

Mary Church Terrell was born on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee, during the Civil War. Well-educated, schooled in foreign languages, Terrell traveled widely and was much in demand as a speaker, lecturer, and writer. She was the first president of the National Association of Colored Women and the first African-American female member of the District of Columbia Board of Education. Criticized by some for her "upper-class ways," Terrell was a vocal critic of lynching and a strong proponent of woman suffrage. Terrell led picket lines to desegregate DC restaurants and lunch rooms in the 1950s. Her autobiography A Colored Woman in the White World, published in 1940, details her remarkable life.