You are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. – Matthew 16:18
Mary Church Terrell established the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) in Washington, D.C., with Ida B. Wells and Harriet Tubman, on this day in 1896. Terrell was the first African American woman to obtain a college degree from Oberlin College and, four years later, she earned a master’s degree. She became involved in civil and women’s rights and began writing about these issues. Frederick Douglass noticed her writings and he worked with her on many campaigns and they became friends. After the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, Terrell devoted her work to the civil rights movement, which she continued well into her eighties, even helping to achieve desegregation in all public places (1953) in Washington, D.C. Terrell died on July 24, 1954, at the age of 90—two months before the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.
As the Lord leads, pray with us…
- For the president and administration officials as they pursue equity and diversity goals.
- For the justices of the Supreme Court as they consider civil rights and other related cases.
