Mary Church Terrell: An Original Oberlin Activist

M Street High School

In 1917, Terrell wrote a history of the school “History of the High School for Negroes in Washington,” for The Journal of Negro History. 

Mary Jane Patterson, OC 1862, the first African American female to receive a Bachelor’s Degree, served as principal in 1871. She was followed by Richard T. Greener, who studied at the Oberlin Preparatory Academy and later graduated from Harvard 1870; Terrell’s classmate Anna Julia Cooper, OC 1884, succeeded Robert Heberton Terrell as principal of the school in 1901; Mr. G.C. Wilkinson, OC 1902, who was principal at the time Terrell wrote the article.