February 16, 2017- Mary Eliza Church Terrell (1863-1954) #VRABlackHistory

In honor of Black History Month, all month long we will be sharing the legacies and stories of the heroes, sheroes, and events in the fight for Black suffrage on social media under the hashtag #VRABlackHistory. Follow us on Twitter (@VRAmatters) to share your own facts.

Today we honor Mary Eliza Church Terrell. Mary was a strong advocate for Black woman suffrage, often highlighting the struggles that Black women had to go through that White women didn’t. Mary did a lot in her life, but her main focus was voting rights, as she recognized and said that she “belonged ‘to the only group in this country that has two obstacles to surmount, both sex and race.’”