Mary Church Terrell: A Black Woman Journalist and Activist Seeks to Elevate Her Race

Abstract

This article establishes the journalism career of Mary Church Terrell, one of the leading black women activists of the twentieth century. Terrell was one of approximately twenty late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century black women journalists who used their pens and voices to address ills in American society, to enlighten and elevate their race and gender, and to advance an activist agenda. Although Terrell wrote hundreds of articles for magazines, newspapers, and other publications during a career that spanned more than six decades, she is rarely acknowledged in the literature about the history of the press. This article places Terrell in the historical account of journalism.