Mary Church Terrell Earns Degree from Oberlin, Becomes Educational Pioneer

Mary Church Terrell, daughter of formerly enslaved Memphians who became millionaires, graduates from Oberlin College's classical four-year program — one of only a handful of Black women in America to hold a college degree. She later earned a master's degree from Oberlin and went on to found the National Association of Colored Women (1896), becoming a central figure in Black female civic leadership.