Suffrage
Terrell was invited to speak at a number of important suffrage events. In 1898, at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention in D.C. marking the 50th anniversary of the organization, she delivered her talk "The Progress of Colored Women." She spoke at the NAWSA convention again in 1900, and in 1908 she spoke in Seneca Falls, New York at the 60th Anniversary Celebration of the Woman's Rights Convention.
She also wrote persuasively on the topic. Her essay "The Justice of Woman Suffrage" appeared in an issue of The Crisis devoted to woman suffrage.
Terrell marched in the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C. on March 13, 1913 with a delegation from the National Association of Colored Women. The parade, organized by Alice Paul for NAWSA to coincide with the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson, was considered successful in furthering the cause of woman suffrage; however, it was not without controversy, as some Southern factions objected to the participation of "colored" women.
Her activism inspired young women at Howard University to found the Delta Sigma Theta sorority in 1913; they asked Terrell to write their creed, known as the "Delta Oath," and made her an honorary member. One of the service organization's highest awards is named for Mary Church Terrell.
In 1921, after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Terrell and her daughter Phyllis received pins from the National Woman's Party for their efforts picketing the White House (CWWW 317).
Carrie Chapman Catt, president of National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900 to 1904 and again from 1915 to 1920, wrote "Mary Church Terrell: An Appreciation," which appeared in the Oberlin Alumni Magazine in 1936.
Even after women achieved the vote, Terrell continued to lobby for women, testifying before Congress several times in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment.
