September 23, 1863 – Birth of Mary Church Terrell, 1st President of the National Association for Colored Women & Founding Member of the NAACP

Mary Church was born on this day to former slaves in Memphis, Tennessee. The Women’s History site relates: Her father, Robert Reed Church, was a successful businessman who became one of the South’s first African American millionaires. Her mother, Louisa Ayres Church, owned a hair salon. . . . .Their affluence and belief in the importance of education enabled Terrell to attend the Antioch College laboratory school in Ohio, and later Oberlin College, where she earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.” Mary spent two years teaching at Wilburforce College and then in 1887 moved to Washington, D.C. to teach at the M Street Colored High School. There she met and married a fellow teacher, Robert Heberton Terrell. Mary Church Terrell In 1892, an old friend of hers, Tommie Moss, was lynched in Memphis. According to the reporting of Ida B. Wells, a white grocer was losing business to a nearby grocery run by three black men: Tommie Moss, Will…

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