About the Author

Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) was a civil rights activist and teacher who was one of the first African-American women to graduate from Oberlin College, earning both a bachelor's and master's degrees. She was also one of the original members of the NAACP. Terrell was the author of A Colored Woman in a White World, Peonage in the United States: The Convict Lease System and the Chain Gangs and A Plea for the White South by a Colored Woman.