As a graduate of Oberlin College and a resident of the national capital, Mrs. Mary Church Terrell should have been eligible to join the Washington branch of the American Association of University Women. But Mary Terrell was a Negro. In 1946, Washington turned her down.
Though 83, fiery Mrs. Terrell decided to fight. "I thought I'd be an arrant coward," she said, "unless I opened the way for other colored women." She applied for membership in the national A.A.U.W. and got in; Washington was ordered to take her in or get out of the association. Instead, Washington took the case to court...
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