“A white woman has only one handicap to overcome - that of gender. I have two - both gender and race. ... Colored men have only one - that of race. 

Colored women are the only group in this country who have two heavy handicaps to overcome, that of race as well as that of gender.” - Mary Church Terrell. 

The term “Handicap” means “ a circumstance  that makes progress or success difficult.”Meaning Mary Church Terrell  had two things that made her life difficult to succeed: race and gender.

Being black and a woman in the 1900s it was almost in possible to succeed.

Mary Church Terrell was the daughter of a former slave. She was born on September 23, 1863 in Tennessee. Her father Robert Reed Church was one of the first African American millionaires to exist , her mother owned a hair salon and she had a brother. 

Her parents got divorced early in her childhood but both of her parents still wanted her and her brother to get an education. She attended Antioch College laboratory school in Ohio later she earned her masters and bachelors degree.

Later she moved to washington to teach at a high school , there she met her love interest Heberton Terrell who was also a teacher. They had a daughter and they adopted their second child. 

In 1892 her activism started when her friend's business was competing with a white man's company. She then elevated her whole race through education.

 Her words “lifting as we climb” became the motto of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), where she became the first president of NACW. 

Mary campaigned endlessly for different black organizations she wrote and spoke extensively. She also embraced women's suffrage and civil rights because she soon realized that she belonged “to the only group in this country that has two such huge obstacles to achieve…both gender and race.”

 In 1909 Mary was one of the founders for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Then in 1910 she co-founded the  College Alumnae Club, later renamed the National Association of University Women.

In 1940 she published an autobiography called “ A colored woman in a white world” talking about her experiences with discrimination towards race and gender, in 1948 she won a lawsuit about anti-discrimination due to the support of people who were also dealing with race and gender discrimination. 

At age 83 she protested the John R Thomson restaurant , which was an all white local restaurant. She and many others victoriously won the protest and gained equal rights to enter any hotel, restaurant , grocery store, ect freely. Mary unfortunately died four years later due to natural causes or old age. 

Mary Church Terrell plays a big part in civil and or african american history. Not only did she become the first president of NACW but she also ended racial segregation in the D.C area. 

She also played a big part in women's suffrage and she got a great education and even went to college. She did all of this with the struggles of race, gender and she had a family to take care of. 

So as you move on with your life, think about who you know that Mary Church Terrell has impacted or even think about how she impacted you. What she did, how she did it , the struggles she had to overcome are extremely astounding and monumental, so let's carry her legacy through history for even longer. 

Let's teach kids, parents, friends or even a stranger on the street to help be the change in the world to impact future generations, even if it's small like recycling or helping out people who need it.

 Mary Church Terrell faced many struggles and changed the world, how will you change it?

                                                      - Amiah A Casler