Mary Church Terrell
Mary Church Terrell is identified as of the “rebels in Petticoats” in reference to the kind of life that she lived. She was born in the year 1863 when women suffrage was dominant and it was rare for women to be involved
in aspects that were believed to boost and entrench development in the society (Carroll, 2017). This notwithstanding, Mary Church Terrell was the first American female to acquire a college degree. Later, she was known as an activist. She championed for the advancement and embracement of civil rights as well as suffrage. In her quest to ensure that gender equality was manifest in the United States, “Mary Church Terrell was confronted by opposing forces from those who believed that the role and position of women were to be kept as low as possible” (Gentry, 2014). This paper seeks to identify the specific developments and changes that Mary Church Terrell pioneered in the United States (Parker, 2017). Following the ensuing discussion, the deliberation confirms that Mary’s actions did not relate with what was expected of her by the society, as a woman. For these
reasons, she was viewed as a rebel and this position is supported as follows.
In the process of fighting for equality in America, Mary Church Terrell had many enemies, most who did not like her by the mere fact that she was courageous, a go-getter, and always determines to go above the bounds and limitations placed by the structure of the society. In addition to the civil rights movements that she supported, “in the year 1909, Terrell was one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People” (Terrell, 2016). In this regard, she was against the societal trappings that made it appear as if the whites were better than the other racial groups. As a consequence of the inequalities that were manifest in the society at this time, social, economic, and political facets of discrimination were manifest. To many, Mary Church Terrell’s moves denoted that she was rebellious to the norms set by general customers and practice. Later on, in the year 1896, she was able to show the administration of the high school where she was teaching that she had the bet skills, experience, and viewpoints to be the school principal. Within a score of about 10 years, Terrell was still thee first female principal in the District of Columbia.
Accordingly, research evidence suggests that Mary Church Terrell confronted some of the most sensitive issues that characterized the society at her times. One of the matters that she vehemently addressed relates to
being black (Jenkins, 2015). In this regard, “Mary Church Terrell insisted that he did not see any sense in placing people in terms of their color when it comes to employment, treatment, and involvement in governmental
affairs (Anderson, 2015).” In point …
