Educator
Located in southwestern Ohio, Wilberforce, like Oberlin, was a small school with theological origins; it prided itself on a rigorous curriculum including Greek and Latin, and recruited prominent "colored" leaders as faculty, including W.E.B. DuBois, and at least two other Oberlin College alumni: noted classicist William Sanders Scarborough, class of 1875, and Terrell's classmate Anna Julia Cooper. At Wilberforce, Terrell wore many hats. In her memoir she recalls teaching five classes (ranging from French to mineralogy), serving as secretary of the faculty, and also as church organist (CWWW 63).
Terrell taught at Wilberforce for two years before being recruited to teach at the "colored" high school on M Street in Washington, D.C. She had been recommended for the position by Adelia Field Johnston, Principal of the Ladies Department at Oberlin, and she was neither the first nor last Oberlin graduate to teach there. At the M Street High School (later known as Paul Laurence Dunbar High School) she was the assistant teacher for Latin under the direction of Robert Heberton Terrell, a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Harvard, and her future husband.
After just one year, Terrell left her job to spend time studying abroad, which she had planned to do prior to accepting the job in D.C. Although Terrell had considered staying in Europe where she enjoyed more freedom from racial prejudice, she returned to Washington in 1890 to resume teaching at M Street. Terrell resigned in 1891 before marrying Robert in October of that year.
Terrell had to relinquish her teaching position, but she certainly did not stop working. She created a career for herself as a writer, lecturer, and woman’s club organizer, and in all of these endeavors, the value of education and the welfare of children were uppermost in her mind.