Born: September 23, 1863, Memphis, TN

Education: Oberlin College, B.A. honors, 1884, M.A., 1888

Died: July 24, 1954, Washington, DC

Terrell fought for social justice. “A White Woman has only one handicap to overcome–a great one, true, her sex; a colored woman faces two–her sex and race,” she said in A Colored Woman in a White World (Simian, 2006, p. 93). “A colored man has only one–that of race.”

Espousing racial, class, and gender equality, she advanced black education and progress. Child of an ex-slave who amassed considerable wealth in Jim Crow Tennessee, well educated, and wife of a federal judge, Terrell served her community. She taught school; led women in charity service, and organized the National Association of Colored Women, whose motto was “Lifting as We Climb.” With state and local affiliates, it supported schools, nurseries, and housing in underserved communities. It also espoused moral respectability. Cofounder of the NAACP, Terrell helped lead its antilynching and women's suffrage campaigns. A leader in the National Council of Negro Women, she became a forerunner in the use of sit-down protests at segregated restaurants ca. 1940s. During their 1950 “sit down,” a Washington, DC café refused to serve Terrell and others. They sued. In 1953 the US Supreme Court approved their suit and ordered the desegregation of District of Columbia public accommodations.