A Colored Woman in a White World - (Classics in Black Studies) by Mary Church Terrell (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

In this autobiography, originally published in 1940, Terrell describes the important events and people in her life.

Review Quotes

"A rich life, full of unforgettable moments, this memoir reflects on the long life of Mary Church Terrell, an accomplished educator and activist who witnessed the momentous events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As the first president of the National Association of Colored Women, Terrell's voice carried significant weight. This book offers a down-to-earth account of her long life in the United States during periods of major political struggles and social transformations, including arenas such as formal education, European culture in the 1890s, and American race politics. Terrell's views and statements yield original ideas on women's suffrage and civil rights, access to education, and struggles for Black emancipation. This is a crucial and necessary text to complement our expanding recovery and understanding of the role of key black women leaders and the movements of which they were a part." --Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin, USA

"An early voice in Black feminism, Mary Church Terrell penned, "A white woman has only one handicap to overcome--that of sex. I belong to the only group in this country which has two such huge obstacles to surmount." In an autobiography that is also the story of the still-unrealized promises of Emancipation, she documents her mobilization of an elite education and upbringing to confront handicaps imposed on what members of her race could achieve. Undertaken with historic Black figures and organizations, these struggles--for economic opportunities, the vote, desegregated facilities, and a fairer criminal justice system--continue." --Jane Anna Gordon, author of Creolizing Political Theory and Statelessness and Contemporary Enslavement

A rich life, full of unforgettable moments, this memoir reflects on the long life of Mary Church Terrell, an accomplished educator and activist who witnessed the momentous events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As the first president of the National Association of Colored Women, Terrell's voice carried significant weight. This book offers a down-to-earth account of her long life in the United States during periods of major political struggles and social transformations, including arenas such as formal education, European culture in the 1890s, and American race politics. Terrell's views and statements yield original ideas on women's suffrage and civil rights, access to education, and struggles for Black emancipation. This is a crucial and necessary text to complement our expanding recovery and understanding of the role of key black women leaders and the movements of which they were a part.

An early voice in Black feminism, Mary Church Terrell penned, "A white woman has only one handicap to overcome--that of sex. I belong to the only group in this country which has two such huge obstacles to surmount." In an autobiography that is also the story of the still-unrealized promises of Emancipation, she documents her mobilization of an elite education and upbringing to confront handicaps imposed on what members of her race could achieve. Undertaken with historic Black figures and organizations, these struggles--for economic opportunities, the vote, desegregated facilities, and a fairer criminal justice system--continue.

About the Author