Mary Church Terrell

              1907

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MARY CHURCH TERRELL
Central P & E Co. Rochester N.Y.


The Lectures

The Bright Side of a Dark Subject
Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Progress of Colored Women
Uncle Sam and the Sons of Ham


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MRS. MARY CHURCH TERRELL
OF WASHINGTON, D. C.


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ANNOUNCEMENT
WE present Mrs. Terrell as one of the really successful women of this country, and as one who has an important mission.  She has a message to deliver to the American people which in her day is as important as was that of Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Indeed, it may be considered supplementary to that great work.  It is fortunate that to this work Mrs. Terrell brings a liberal education, a becoming modesty and refinement of manner which give promise of great usefulness.  She is specially gifted in speech and in her every platform appearance readily captivates her audience.  She is so profoundly in earnest that she invariably carries conviction to those who hear her.

For the sake of the cause in behalf of which Mrs. Terrell speaks, we hope to secure for her many and important engagements during the next three years, for which time we have assumed the direction of her platform work.—The Management.



INTRODUCTION
Mrs. Mary Church Terrell was born in Memphis, Tenn., of colored parentage.  She was taken to Oberlin, Ohio, when a child, and was graduated later from the classical course of Oberlin College.  Her immediate worth was apparent, in that she was invited, upon her graduation, to become registrar and tutor in Oberlin College.  This would have made her a member of its faculty.  The honor of this call was great, for it was the first and only such that has ever been given to one of the negro race by a college of such rank as Oberlin.  She was Miss Church then, and declined the call, because she was soon to marry Mr. Terrell, whose wife she now is.  Before marriage, Mrs. Terrell spent some years in Europe in study and travel.  She studied French at Paris and Lausanne, Switzerland, a year.  Then she studied German for one year at Berlin, enjoying, in the meantime, the German opera and theater.  Afterwards she went to Italy, and in Florence studied Italian, having advantage at the same time of the world's famous art galleries.  Behind all the culture from her advantages was Mrs. Terrell herself, who at once appealed to all who met her, and made them want to know her.

Mrs. Terrell was the first colored woman to serve on the Board of Trustees of the Washington Public Schools and through her energy and intelligence made her influence felt throughout the system.  She was the first president of the National Association of Colored Women, to which position she was elected three times, and declining to serve further was made Honorary President for life.





SIGNIFICANT OPINIONS OF PUBLIC AND PLATFORM PEOPLE OF NOTE

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From SENATOR DOLLIVER of Iowa.

She is one of the most eloquent women in America.

From Rev. ANNA H. SHAW and Mrs. WM. LLOYD GARRISON.

It gives us pleasure to endorse Mrs. Mary Church Terrell as a woman of education and intelligence.  She is a magnetic speaker and holds the undivided interest of her audience.

From ROBERT NOURSE.

I have known Mary Church Terrell for a number of years, and have heard her address large and cultured audiences of both Caucasian and Negro races.  She is without doubt the leading colored woman of this country.  Her productions are singularly refined, and always delivered with modesty and eloquence.

One is pained that so noble a woman, with such a message, must suffer social ostracism, simply because she has some negro blood in her veins.

From ISABEL BEECHER HOOKER.

At a convention, composed of the brainiest women of the United States, Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, of Washington, proved herself to be an orator among orators.  She is a speaker of superior ability, fine presence and strong magnetic power—graceful, eloquent, logical.  Mrs. Terrell is one of the coming women of America.

From WM. KNOWLES COOPER, General Secretary Y. M. C. A., Springfield, Mass.

I heartily commend Mrs. Terrell to Lecture Bureaus, Young Men's Christian Associations and to other organizations.  Her treatment of the colored woman and the negro problem is inspiring, and her facts are presented in such an attractive way that none can fail to be vastly benefited as well as instructed and entertained.

From Dr. J. E. RANKIN, Pres. of Howard University, Washington, D. C.

Mrs. Mary Church Terrell lectured on The Progress of Colored Women.  Her graceful manner, and perfect self-possession, her ease and correctness in speaking, added greatly to the pleasure of listening, while, when she was done, we all felt that the subject had been treated with a dignity, enthusiasm and intelligence worthy of the theme.

From BALLINGTON BOOTH, December 4, 1903.

Mary Church Terrell is, in my opinion, an able platform woman.  She possesses in more than ordinary degree the essentials for public work.  She is perfectly natural in manner, clear and consecutive in delivery and forcible in logic.  I have before remarked, and again unhesitatingly do so, that many a princess would part with a princess' ransom had they her gift of magnetism and delivery.


From LUCIEN C. WARNER, The Waldorf-Astoria, New York, January 17, 1903.
I take great pleasure in commending Mrs. Mary Church Terrell to the lecture committees of Young Men's Christian Associations, and others who desire brilliant and profitable lectures.  She is not only an orator, but also a lady of high attainments.  Her lectures, while of thrilling interest to all, have a special bearing upon the elevation of the negro race, of which she is as distinguished a representative of the women as is Booker T. Washington of the men.

From MRS. JOSEPH COOK.

When I heard Mrs. Mary Church Terrell I was captivated not only by her clear thought and exquisite diction, but by her grace of manner and her musical voice and fine enunciation.  It was a surprise to me that I had not heard her on lecture platforms in eastern cities, for she seemed to me most attractive in her personality and in her power to interest and sway an audience.

From BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.

This is to say that for many years I have known Mrs. Mary Church Terrell of Washington, D. C.  She is a platform speaker possessed of a unique and commanding personality and will interest any audience to which she may be permitted to address herself.  She speaks out of a cultured mind and quickly wins a sympathetic response from her audience.  Her delivery is forceful and her expression fluent and descriptive.





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PRESS REFLECTIONS

Danville (Ill.) Daily News
—Mrs. Terrell well deserves the title, The Female Booker T. Washington, though she needs not the title to aid her on her way in the intellectual and oratorical world.  Her addresses are the pure gold with less dross of nonsense than any lecturer that has come upon the stage at this Chautauqua.


Clarinda (Ia.) Herald
—Mrs. Mary Church Terrell has come and spoken, and conquered.  She came on Tuesday afternoon.  She delivered her address on the work of the colored women of her race a short time after she arrived, and last evening she was the lioness of the hour.  She won all by her beautiful, unassuming manner, her sweet face, and her stirring, inspiring words.  Her subject was a vast one, and one not easily handled.  But the Female Booker T. Washington had complete mastery of her subject.


Winona (Ind.) Assembly Review
—The colored race needs no better proof of its bright side than the existence of a woman like Mrs. Mary Church Terrell.  Graceful, magnetic, bearing the unmistakable stamp of broad culture, education and refinement, a woman whose vast knowledge of her own and other races left her far above the average woman of whatever color, she stood upon Winona's platform yesterday and captured the hearts of her audience.  Beginning with the idea of placing hope before the race, rather than dwelling upon its vices, she showed that the surest way to elevate was to dwell upon its virtues and achievements rather than to grossly exaggerate its faults.


Wilmington (Del.) Morning News
— The scene on the platform was a very pretty one.  President Baird, of the Board of Education, presided.  The feature of the evening's exercises was the address to the graduating class by Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, of the Washington School Board.  In recent years no woman speaker in this city has made a better impression.  Her address was both eloquent and practical.  It was as interesting to the people in the audience as it was to the graduates.


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Columbus Safeguard, Columbus Junction, Ia.
—Yesterday was a day of rare enjoyment, the address of Mary Church Terrell, the colored lady, in a plea for her race, easily being the best of the many good things to which the audience has been permitted to listen the past week.


Decatur (Ill.) Daily Herald
—If the negro persecutors of Eldorado, Ill., could have listened to the marvelous address of Mary Church Terrell, at the Chautauqua, Thursday, they would surely have felt their insignificance.  Mrs. Terrell is a credit to any race.  She is able, scholarly, and broad in her conceptions.  Her lecture was almost classic in diction, profound and convincing in its logic and sound in its philosophy.  Those who heard Mrs. Terrell are unanimous in according her a place among the foremost orators and thinkers of America.


Boston (Mass.) Transcript
—The Friday evening session of the convention brought before a very large audience a woman of whom few present had ever heard, but whose address was one of the ablest and most brilliant to which a Washington, (D. C.) audience may listen.  The woman was Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, a member of the School Board of the District of Columbia, a graduate of Oberlin College and president of the National Colored Woman's Association.  At the close of her address the applause lasted several minutes.


Minneapolis (Wis.) Tribune
—While the addresses of all the speakers were admirable in subject and treatment, the palm must be conceded to Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, the colored delegate from Washington.  Mrs. Terrell is a woman of refined, imposing presence.  Her subject was the Progress of Colored Women.  She pleaded for justice to her people in eloquent, impassioned language that moved many of her audience to tears.  In beauty and refinement of diction, as well as impressive earnestness, her appeal was a master-piece of oratory.




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ASSOCIATE MEMBER
AMERICAN LYCEUM UNION

S. B. Hershey
Prest & Genl Mgr.
ROCHESTER.N.Y.

DIRECTION
CENTRAL LYCEUM BUREAU
Suite 532 Tribune Building, CHICAGO, ILL.
FRED PELHAM, Manager.


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THE CENTRAL PRINTING & ENGRAVING COMPANY
ROCHESTER N.Y.