Mrs. Mary Church Terrell lecture poster, 1905
1 2018-09-28T20:59:30+00:00 Cecilia Robinson dbf5499cc5366ba7dd1ab7a6e5a00d835a94ee7d 1 1 2018-09-28T20:59:30+00:00 Images provided by the Oberlin College Archives may be downloaded for educational use only by Oberlin College and the Oberlin School District. For all other uses--including reproduction in any media--permission must be requested from the Oberlin College Archives. Please see http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/using/services/application.html Oberlin College. Archives poster Mary Church Terrell Papers, 1884-2004 Cecilia Robinson dbf5499cc5366ba7dd1ab7a6e5a00d835a94ee7dThis page is referenced by:
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The Monthly Rhetoricals at Oberlin College provided Mary Church Terrell with excellent training for a career on the lecture circuit. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there was great interest in public education in the United States, and the Lyceum and Chautauqua movements brought informative and entertaining speakers to nearly all parts of the country. Speakers bureaus, through directories and magazines, provided biographical information about lecturers and the topics they covered, advertising materials such as posters, and handled financial arrangements.
Terrell was represented by a number of bureaus throughout her career, and she traveled across the United States and abroad to address diverse audiences – both "colored" and white, small and large. Terrell enjoyed the work, but there were times when the money barely covered her expenses. The travel was grueling and she worried about being away from her young daughters. It pained Terrell to miss her daughter Phyllis's high school graduation ceremony due to a prior commitment to speak in California (CWWW 185).Queen of the Platform
Terrell received rave reviews from small town newspapers as well as circuit managers. A South Dakota newspaper hailed her as the “female Booker T. Washington … without a doubt the leading colored woman of the country – beautiful in person, scholarly in mind – of great dignity and grace.” An article in Lyceumite and Talent, a publication of the Chautauqua Managers Association, recounts Terrell's best qualities and commends her skill:
While Terrell had a repertoire of talks, she never delivered exactly the same speech, but tailored her remarks on the theme to suit the occasion:Mrs. Terrell is a convincing as well as captivating speaker. Her own faith creates faith. No one who hears her doubts that she means what she says, and that she knows. She speaks without notes. She stands on the platform with easy self-reliance. She appeals to the eye and the ear and the heart alike.
Regular topics included The Bright Side of a Dark Subject (which she delivered at Oberlin College as a 'Thursday Lecture' in May 1904), Uncle Sam and the Sons of Ham, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and perhaps most frequently requested: The Progress of Colored Women.Because I practically never used a manuscript when I delivered an address, many thought I spoke extemporaneously. But this was not the case, and I attempted to disabuse people's minds of this impression. As a rule, I decided not only what arguments I would make and what facts I would present, but I spent considerable time choosing the language in which my thought should be couched. I took myself very seriously indeed as a public speaker. (CWWW 186)
