“Lifting As We Climb” Mary Church Terrell: A Social Welfare Pioneer

Being born in a family of enslaved people. Mary Eliza Church Terrell was the daughter of the first richest South African American man in history, Robert Reed Church (Michals, 2017). Mary was born in 1863 (Michals, 2017) and proudly identified herself as a colored woman, two of the most oppressed groups in American history. Although she looked, spoke, and experienced life like white women, her uniqueness was shaped by her fearless use of brutal images of enslaved mothers and women in her speeches, who could also be oppressed by her race (Moody, 2008). Her advocacy for racial equality placed her front and center of the development of modern social welfare.

Background

Graduating with a Bachelor's degree from Antioch College and a Master's in classical studies from Oberlin College, Mary was among the few lucky colored women (Michals, 2017; Moody, 2008). Her parents had a lot of influence on her personality development and how her decisions shaped her future. Their belief in the importance of education was well-defined. Despite her father’s wishes to have her “live the life of a gentlewoman” (Giddings, 1984), her urge to be an impactful individual in the social sector had her begin her political activism journey one year after she married Heberton Terrell in 1891 (Michals, 2017; Moody, 2008).

Women Suffrage

Mary’s path crossed many well-known civil and racial activists, including her friend Fredrick B. Douglass (Giddings, 1984). It’s argued that Fredrick influenced much of Mary’s political endeavor toward the colored people's voting rights movements and to end lynching (Giddings, 1984). Although Fredrick was supportive of women’s voting rights, after the war, he and other colored men advocates decided that it would be best to support colored men’s voting rights only, which was passed as a law in 1870 (U.S. Const. amend 19). They probably feared that society would go in shock after the war, especially since it was building itself back up; thus, stability was required (GT, 2020). So, if everyone had equal opportunities to vote (men and women), things might have turned unstable after the Civil War. Even though many women served side by side with men during the war. So, men’s falling out of supporting women’s voting rights was considered a betrayal.

“In a meeting in the 1890s, she submitted a petition to the organization asking for their resolution to include a protest against the injustices black people were subjected to” (Koster, 2020). Susan B. Anthony, who became a friend of Mary, encouraged her by being part of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) (Koster, 2020; GT, 2020). When Terrell spoke of injustices against people of color, she used the pronoun “I.” to address the notion that although well-educated and financially secure, colored women face discrimination and are denied opportunities for growth (Moody, 2008). After 1870, when colored men gained their right to vote, women had to take charge of their destiny. Mary and other women activists decided to stand up for themselves (Koster, 2020; GT, 2020).

Unfortunately, Susan B. Anthony and other white activists in the NAWSA decided that to have a chance to turn the table on men, they would cater to the southern women movements who were opposed to colored men having the right to vote (Koster, 2020; GT, 2020). They agreed that not all women should get the right to vote, not colored women; of course, only educated white women should gain that right (GT, 2020). Since Mary Church Terrell was the only colored woman with the stamina to stand against her white female friends (Koster, 2020; GT, 2020), she gathered forces with Harriet Tubman, Frances Harper, and Ida Wells and founded and led The National Association of Colored Women Clubs (NACWC) in 1896, embodied the motto that became evident in her work: Lifting as We Climb” (Moody, 2008; Britannica, T., 2017). The core concept of the NACWC was to uplift women through job training, wage equity, advocacy, and childcare (Britannica, T., 2017). They modeled their work in raising funds, which aided in establishing kindergartens, funding job training programs, and running a residence and job attainment program for girls from the south (Britannica, T., 2017; Davis, 2020).

In today’s world view, Mary Church Terrell was the Oprah Winfrey of her decade. In her own way, she had something special in her, an authentic power that was derived from who she was. Not being a colored woman, but being an individual who had the will to use her own knowledge and give back, being able to align herself with what she came to the world to be. Terrel and Oprah are two of the most influential women who believed in the power of education to overcome poverty (Variety, 2015). It is the calling to change the world of people of African and African American descent.

The End of Lynching

Although she had a remarkable influence working as a teacher at Wilberforce University, later at a colored high school, and then taking on multiple prestigious positions until she passed (Giddings, 1984; Michals, 2017; Davis, 2020) Together with her dear friend Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary took an interest in ending the lynching of colored men in the south (Giddings, 1984). Her primary focus was on empowering colored people and ending discrimination against them (Giddings, 1984; Michals, 2017). The lynching of Thomas Moss in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1892, a dear friend to Terrell and Wells, shaped the beginnings of her and Ida’s lives in advocacy (Giddings, 1984). 

According to Giddings, lynching was a traditional southern-local act to enforce “justice,” although without legal sanctions, it was a death sentence for colored people (Giddings, 2015). A notion was drawn by Social Darwinism Evolving Scientific Theory, which cast colored people in a category inferior to whites (Giddings, 2015). In the late 19th century, colored people were empirically viewed by scientists as a devolving race, more primitive, and lacking self-control and honor (Giddings, 2015). Building on that, the idea around women’s sexuality began to change, where colored men had more passionless ideas toward white women (Giddings, 2015). Consequently, lynching was an answer to defuse any thoughts of rape and/or interracial marriage, thus keeping the “purity” of the white race (Giddings, 2015).

Although Moss was never guilty of such a crime or vile desire, “lynching was an excuse to keep the nigger down” (Giddings, 1984). To end lynching after Moss’s death, Wells’s approach was to motivate colored families to purchase pistols, and through comprehensive investigations and reporting of more than 700 cases, Terrell’s approach was to advocate in the White House (Giddings, 1984). Their positions complement each other in maturing short- and long-term outcomes. Wells produced immediate self-protection habits for the colored, and Terrel’s at the end of lynching as a law in 1922 (Giddings, 1984).

Leaving a Legacy

Her work didn’t stop there. In 1950, she challenged segregation in public places, protesting in D.C.’s restaurants at age 86 (Michals, 2017). “In 1953, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated eating facilities were unconstitutional, a breakthrough in the civil rights movement” (Michals, 2017). Also the ending of segregation in schools in 1954, when she influenced the U.S. Supreme Court's historic Brown v. Board of Education case (Davis, 2020). It was a landmark decision that concluded her journey as an activist. Her influence didn’t stop there; her work is still recognized in many social welfare policies and laws, such as the Equal Employment Opportunities Act, which focuses on protecting job applicants from discrimination, especially women. Also, the motto that she created, which is embedded in many education and women empowerment programs and initiatives, for example, DePaul’s College of Education and Birmingham City Schools, Life as We Climb Charitable Organization within New Energy Equity, and Lift as We Climb Coalition and so many others.

Being identified as not just a woman but a colored woman was her pride. She was privileged to be educated and used her education to help the colored community rise. “Lifting As We Climb” symbolizes Mary’s ideology, which is embedded in the Afro-American culture as a self-help method. It enforces the importance of education and better life decisions in the minds of generations yet to come and symbolizes her work of lifting people from the oppression and stigma that label them as lazy, dependent, and uneducated. The works of our ancestors in shaping policies through advocacy, investigating oppression, and demanding justice are all measures that shaped the freedom and esteem we live in now.

References

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia (2017). “National Association of Colored Women's Clubs”. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-  Association-of-Colored-Womens-Clubs

Davis, Jennifer. (2020). “Mary Church Terrell, Suffragist and Civil Rights Activist.” Library of Congress. https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2020/03/mary-church-terrell-suffragist-and-civil- rights-activist/

Gaithersburg Television. (2020). Virtual Speaker Series: A Visit with Mary Church Terrell. [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQiNWzlSXTc

Giddings, Paula. (2015). The Origins of Lynching Culture in the United States. [video]. Facing History & Ourselves. https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/video/origins-lynching-culture-united-states

Koster, Joan B. (2020). “Mary Church Terrell on Standing for Suffrage.” Historical Fiction about            Forgotten Women. https://www.joankoster.com/mary-church-terrell-on-standing-for-suffrage/

Michals, Debra. (2017). “Mary Church Terrell”. National Women’s History Museum.      https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-church-terrell

Moody, Terra. (2008). A Servant of Words: Historical Critical Analysis of the Rhetoric of Mary Church Terrell. Conference Papers. National Communication Association, 1. 

Variety. (2015). Oprah’s Tearful Speech at Power of Women. [video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rfn94k717U

U.S. Constitution. Amendment 19.