Recognition and Honors
Oberlin granted Terrell a Doctor of Humane Letters degree on June 14, 1948; Terrell was the only woman and only “colored” person among five honorary degree recipients that year. On the front page of the Oberlin Review on the day of the ceremony, Terrell was pictured with this tribute: "loyal daughter of Oberlin; living symbol and exponent of those great concerns which have been historically the concerns of the College; profitable servant, returning talents ten-fold."
Oberlin was not the first institution to so honor Terrell, despite the fact that alumni had lobbied for an honorary degree for Terrell as early as the 1930s; Wilberforce University, where she began her teaching career, granted Terrell a Doctor of Humane Letters in 1946, and Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she taught periodically, honored her just ten days before Oberlin did.
