Born in Memphis, Tennessee, to a middle-class African-American family. Her father was a real estate investor, and her mother was a successful entrepreneur and owned a hair salon. After graduation, she attended Oberlin College – the first college in the US to accept female and African-American students. Terrell was one of the first African-American women to get a college degree when she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Classics, after taking the “gentleman’s path” – learning four years as opposed to the two years for women.
While learning for a Master’s Degree in Education, Terrell began teaching modern languages at Wilberforce University, and after graduation, she moved to Washington, DC, for a short time before traveling to study in Europe. There she became active in social matters, especially empowering black women. At the age of 28, she married Robert Heberton Terrell, they had four children, only one survived to adulthood, and they later adopted a girl.
Since her college years, Terrell was an active suffragist and was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Due to the NAWSA’s objection to including African-American women in its agenda, in 1892, Terrell, alongside six other women, established the Colored Women’s League. As the president of the organization, she decided to combine efforts with similar organizations across the US and helped to form the National Association of Colored Women and served as its president. She also founded the National Association of College Women, which established kindergartens and training programs in Washington, DC. In recognition of her personal achievements as well as the organizations she founded, she was appointed to the Board of Education of the District of Columbia, the first black woman in the US to serve in such a position.
Following the 19th amendment ratification, Terrel shifted her focus towards fighting segregation. In her biography “Colored Woman in a White World,” she is outlining her personal experiences with discrimination. In her 80’s, she protested against segregated restaurants, theaters, and other establishments in Washington, DC, and at the age of 86, she became the first African-American admitted to the Washington chapter of the American Association of University Women.
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