The Progress of Colored Women

Book excerpt: 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 issues 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 sound 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 and further the cause, which they did in their thousands. Living to the age of ninety, Terrell was a bridge between the Reconstruction era and the modern civil rights movement that sprung to prominence in the years following World War II. This edition of Terrell's famed lecture is accompanied by two others delivered during the early decades of her activism. Also included is a biographical introduction which summarizes the life and achievements of the author.