accomplished through the remarkable personality of the woman who is the
head and the soul of every effort. Indomitable courage, boundless
energy, fine tact and a sense of the fitness of things, kindly spirit,
and firm faith in God have deservedly given her success. Beyond the
bounds of her immediate institution her influence extends. About the
year 1912 the trustees felt the need of so extending the work as to make
the school something of a community center; and thus arose the McLeod
Hospital and Training School for Nurses. In 1912, moved by the utter
neglect of the children of the turpentine camp at Tomoka, Mrs. Bethune
started work for them in a little house that she secured. The aim was to
teach the children to be clean and truthful and helpful, to sew and to
sweep and to sing. A short school term was started among them, and the
mission serves as an excellent practice school for the girls of the
senior class in the Training School. A summer school and a playground
have also been started for the children in Daytona. Nor have the boys
and young men been neglected. Here was a problem of unusual difficulty.
Any one who has looked into the inner life of the small towns of
Florida could not fail to be impressed by the situation of the boys and
young men. Hotel life, a shifting tourist population, and a climate of
unusual seductiveness, have all left their impress. On every side to the
young man beckons temptation, and in town after town one finds not one
decent recreation center or uplifting social influence. Pool-rooms
abound, and the young man is blamed for entering forbidden paths; but
all too often the Christian men and women of the community have put
forth no definite organized effort for his uplift. All too often there
results a blasted life--a heartache for a mother, or a ruined home for
some young woman. In Daytona, in 1913, on a lot near the school campus,
one of the trustees, Mr. George S. Doane, erected a neat, commodious
building to be used in connection with the extension work of the
institution as a general reading-room and home for the Young Men's
Christian Association; and this is the only specific work so being done
for Negro boys in this section of the state. A debating club, an
athletic club, lecture club, and prayer-meetings all serve as means
toward the physical, intellectual, and spiritual development of the
young men. A "Better Boys Movement" is also making progress and the
younger boys are becoming interested in canning and farming as well as
being cared for in their sports and games.
No sketch of this woman's work should close without mention of her
activities for the nation at large. Red Cross work or a Liberty Loan
drive has alike called forth her interest and her energy. She has
appeared on some great occasions and before distinguished audiences,
such as that for instance in the Belasco Theatre in Washington in
December, 1917, when on a noteworthy patriotic occasion she was the only
representative of her race to speak.
Her girls have gone into many spheres of life and have regularly made
themselves useful and desirable. Nearly two hundred are now annually
enrolled at the school. The demand for them as teachers, seamstresses,
or cooks far exceeds the supply. In great homes and humble, in country
or in town, in Daytona or elsewhere--North, South, East, West--they
remember the motto of their teacher and of the Master of all, "Not to be
ministered unto but to minister;" and year after year they accomplish
better and better things for the school that they love so well and
through it for the Kingdom of God.
* * * * *
Two thousand years ago the Savior of Mankind walked upon the earth, a
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and the people hid as it were
their faces from him. But one day he went into the home of a Pharisee
and sat him down to meat. And a woman of the city, when she knew that
Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of
ointment, exceeding precious, and began to wash his feet with her tears,
and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and
anointed them with the ointment. And there were some that had
indignation among themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the
ointment made? But Jesus said, Let her alone. She hath wrought a good
work on me. She hath done what she could. Verily, I say unto you,
Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world,
this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
To-day as well as centuries ago the Christ is before us, around us,
waiting. We do not always know him, for he appears in disguise, as a
little orphan, or a sick old woman, or even perhaps as some one of high
estate but in need of prayer. Let us do what we can. Let each one prove
herself an earnest follower. To such end is the effort of Mary McLeod
Bethune; and as we think of all that she has done and is doing let us
for our own selves once more recall the beautiful words of Sister Moore:
"There is no place too lowly or dark for our feet to enter, and no place
so high and bright but it needs the touch of the light that we carry
from the Cross."
[Illustration: MARY CHURCH TERRELL]
MARY CHURCH TERRELL
VI.
MARY CHURCH TERRELL
With the increasingly complex problems of American civilization, woman
is being called on in ways before undreamed of to bear a share in great
public burdens. The recent great war has demonstrated anew the part that
she is to play in our factories, our relief work, our religious
organizations--in all the activities of our social and industrial life.
The broadening basis of the suffrage in some states and the election of
a woman to a seat in Congress have also emphasized the fact that in the
new day woman as well as man will have to bear the larger
responsibilities of citizenship. In all this intense life the Negro
woman has taken a part, and she will have to do still more in the
future. Even before the Civil War there were women of the race who
labored, sometimes in large ways, for the influencing of sentiment and
the salvation of their people. In the present period of our country's
history new problems arise, sometimes even more delicate than those that
went before them and even more difficult of solution--problems of
education, readjustment, and of the proper moulding of public opinion.
They call for keen intelligence, broad information, rich culture, and
the ability to meet men and women of other races and other countries on
the broad plane of cosmopolitanism. In public life and in the higher
graces of society no woman of the race has commanded more attention from
the American and the international public than Mary Church Terrell.
The life of this woman is an example of the possibilities not only of
Negro but of American womanhood. She has appeared on platforms with men
and women of other races, sometimes sturdy opponents on public
questions, and more than held her own. She has attended an international
congress in Europe and surpassed all the other women from her country in
her ability to address audiences in languages other than English. With
all this she has never forgotten the religious impulse that is so strong
in the heart of her people and that ultimately is to play so large a
part in their advancement. One admirer of her culture has said, "She
should be engaged to travel over the country as a model of good manners
and good English."
Mary Church was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Robert R.
and Louisa Ayres Church. When she was yet very young her parents sent
her to Ohio to be educated, and here she remained until she was
graduated from the classical course in 1884. Then for two years she
taught at Wilberforce University in Ohio, and for one year more in a
high school in Washington. Desirous of broadening her attainments,
however, she now went to Europe for a period of study and travel. She
remained two years, spending the time in France, Switzerland, Germany,
and Italy, generally improving herself in language. On her return she
resumed her work in Washington, and she was offered the registrarship at
Oberlin College, a distinct compliment coming as it did from an
institution of such high standing. She declined the attractive position,
however, because of her approaching marriage to Robert H. Terrell, a
graduate of Harvard College and formerly principal of a high school in
Washington, who was appointed to a judgeship in the District of Columbia
by President Roosevelt.
Since her marriage Mrs. Terrell has written much on topics of general
interest and from time to time has formally appeared as a public
lecturer. One of her strongest articles was that on Lynching in the
_North American Review_ for June, 1904. The centenary of the birth of
Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1912 found her unusually well posted on the
life and work of the novelist, so that after she lectured many times on
the subject she brought together the results of her study in an
excellent pamphlet. She was the first president of the National
Association of Colored Women's Clubs, was twice re-elected, and,
declining to serve further, was made honorary president for life. She
was chosen as one of the speakers at the International Congress of Women
held in Berlin in June, 1904. Said the _Washington Post_ of her
performance on this occasion: "The hit of the Congress on the part of
the American delegates was made by Mrs. Mary Church Terrell of
Washington, who delivered one speech in German and another in equally
good French. Mrs. Terrell is a colored woman who appears to have been
beyond every other of our delegates prominent for her ability to make
addresses in other than her own language." In a letter to some of the
largest newspapers in the country Mrs. Ida Husted Harper said further:
"This achievement on the part of a colored woman, added to a fine
appearance and the eloquence of her words, carried the audience by
storm and she had to respond three times to the encores before they were
satisfied. It was more than a personal triumph; it was a triumph for her
race."
Mrs. Terrell has ever exhibited an intense interest in public affairs.
On the occasion of the discharge of the Negro soldiers in Brownsville,
Texas, in 1906, she at once comprehended the tremendous issues involved
and by her interviews with men high in the nation's life did much for
the improvement of a bad situation. When, some years ago, Congress by
resolution granted power to the Commissioners of the District of
Columbia to appoint two women upon the Board of Education for the public
schools, Mrs. Terrell was one of the women appointed. She served on the
Board for five years with signal ability and unusual success, and on the
occasion of her resignation in 1912 was given a magnificent testimonial
by her fellow-citizens.
It would be difficult to record all the different things that Mary
Church Terrell has done or the numerous ways in which she has turned
sentiment on the race problem. In recent years she has been drawn more
and more to her own home. She is in constant demand as a speaker,
however, and one or two experiences or incidents must not pass
unremarked. In 1906 she was invited by Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks to come
to Cornell University to deliver her address on the Bright Side of the
Race Problem. She was introduced by Prof. F. A. Fetter of the Department
of Economics. When she had finished her lecture she was greeted by
deafening applause, and then she was surrounded by an eager crowd
desirous of receiving an introduction. One enthusiastic woman exclaimed,
as she warmly shook the speaker's hand, "I was so glad to hear you say
something about the bright side, and--do you know?--every Southern
faculty woman was here." A little later she was the guest of honor at a
reception in the home of Ex-Ambassador Andrew D. White, the first
president of Cornell University.
Just what Mary Church Terrell means as an inspiration to the young women
of the Negro race one might have seen some years ago if he could have
been present at Spelman Seminary on the occasion of the twenty-fifth
anniversary of this the largest school for Negro girls in the world. She
was preceded on the program by one or two prominent speakers who tried
to take a broad view of the race problem but who were plainly baffled
when they came face to face with Southern prejudice. When Mrs. Terrell
rose to speak the air was tense with eagerness and anxiety. How she
acquitted herself on this occasion, how eloquently she plead, and how
nimbly and delicately she met her opponents' arguments, will never be
forgotten by any one who was privileged to hear her.
The compliments that have been paid to the eloquence, the grace, the
culture, the tact, and the poise of this woman are endless. She exhibits
exceptional attainments either on or off the platform. Her words bristle
with earnestness and energy, quickly captivating an audience or holding
the closest attention in conversation. Her gestures are frequent, but
always in sympathetic harmony. Her face is inclined to be sad in repose,
but lights quickly and effectively to the soul of whatever subject she
touches. Her voice is singularly clear and free from harsh notes. She
exhibits no apparent effort in speaking, and at once impresses an
audience by her ease, her courage, and her self-abnegation. Through all
her work moreover constantly thrills her great hope for the young men
and women of her race, so many of whom she has personally inspired.
Such a woman is an asset to her country and an honor to the race to
which she belongs.
End of Project Gutenberg's Women of Achievement, by Benjamin Brawley