Terrell was born in Memphis, Tennessee, during the Civil War to Robert Reed Church and Louisa Ayers, who were former slaves. Successful in business, the Churches were able to provide their daughter with opportunities not readily available to many African Americans at the time. Terrell’s graduated with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oberlin College and then embarked on a career in teaching. She taught at Wilberforce College in Ohio before moving to Washington, DC, where she became the first Black woman to serve as principal at the M Street High School (now known as Dunbar High School).
In 1892 Terrell joined Ida B. Wells, another African American activist, in anti-lynching campaigns after a longtime friend was lynched by Whites. In 1896 she cofounded the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and served as its first president. Terrell focused on the advancement of Black Americans through education, community, and work, and she was particularly committed to the Black women’s suffrage movement.
In 1909 Terrell was among the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and in 1915 she represented the United States as a delegate to the International Congress of Women held in The Hague. She continued to pursue her activism through public talks, events, and writing, publishing her autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World, in 1940. Terrell died in 1954 in Maryland, four years after winning a major Supreme Court case on public segregation in restaurants. Terrell’s belief that she belonged to “the only group in this country that has two such huge obstacles to surmount . . . both race and sex” influenced her activism throughout her life, and her legacy for both women and Black Americans is substantial.