Progress of Colored Women, The.
American Missionary Association (At head of title). NY: Congregational Rooms, (1898). First Edition, small 12mo, pp. 11 [1 blank], printed self wraps, stapled. Sheets little toned, couple of small closed tear to the wear blank wrap. A very good copy.
Not in LCP/HSP Afro-Americana Cataloguem; not in Blockson; not in Negro History 1553-1903; not in Faust, American Women Writers; Wesley, The Quest for Equality p. 74.
Rare, we have never seen this before, OCLC lists a number of reprints and computer versions but just three copies of the book: Oberlin, Broward (FL) City Library and Temple.
This is an address that Terrell gave before the National Woman Suffrage Association (of which she was an active member) in February of 1898 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the organization. Of the speech, Anthony and Harper note (History of Woman Suffrage, vol. IV, p. 298) "The progress of Colored Women was pictures in an impassioned address by Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, president of the National Association of Colored Women. She received numerous floral tributes at its close." She spoke again at the Convention in 1900 and served for five years as a member of the school board. Terrell was one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree, graduating from Oberlin College in 1884.
A journalist and teacher, she was associated in a number of struggles with Frederick Douglass and was one of the founders of the NAACP. Wesley, p. 74: "In 1896 the National Association of Colored Women was formed with Mary Church Terrell as its first President. The association's motto: "Lifting As We Climb" was well chosen ... They founded homes for orphans, hospitals, and many other social agencies, which benefited thousands of disadvantaged people. These women were also politically active and were influential in the fight for woman suffrage. They did much to encourage political education among black people and endorsed the concept of change through cooperative action." "Mary Church Terrell was active on picket lines and in sit-in on behalf of civil rights as early as the 1940's. Largely through he leadership Thompson's Restaurants were desegregated in the Capital., one of the landmarks in the desegregation of public accommodations. She was a strong advocate of women's rights ... [Davis, The American Negros Reference Book, p. 543].
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