Unit 10 9-12: Learning Plan

Content Background- Mary Church Terrell bio

Mary Church Terrell delivered the “What it Means to be Colored in the Capital of the United States” speech at the United Women’s Club in Washington, D.C., on October 10, 1906.  Terrell was a strong advocate of both civil and women’s rights. During her lifetime, she helped founded the National Association of Colored Women and the National Association of Colored People (NAACP). She was also active in the National American Woman Suffrage Association. While living in Washington, D.C., Terrell gave several addresses on the issue of equal rights for both African Americans and women. This speech offers readers a view of early 20th-century Washington, D.C., as experienced by Black women.

Learning Activities

• • Do Now
    Ask students why people would say Washington was culturally a southern city in 1906.
    Washington was situated between two former slave states: Virginia and Maryland. Virginia had been a member of the Confederacy. Maryland was kept in the Union because Abraham Lincoln ordered the Union Army not to let Maryland succeed. Many Marylanders, such as John Wilkes Booth, supported the Confederacy in the War.
  • Direct Instruction
    Explain to students who Mary Church Terrell was and why her speech contributed to the awareness of oppression in the City of Washington. Terrell was an educated member of the Black elite and had many connections with prominent white Americans who could help her cause.
    • Give students a copy of the Mary Church Terrell biography.
  • Guided Practice
    • Give students the What it Means to be Colored in the Capital of the United States speech and instruct then to read it.
    • Then, go over slide 5 to slide 12 of the Terrell PowerPoint with students
      • Show them the answers to questions, where provided.
      • Instruct them to answer the unanswered and thinking questions aloud, where answers may vary.
  • Independent Practice
    • Give students the nine-question handout and let them complete the work in class.
      • They can turn in their answers at the end of class.
  • Closure
    • Go over the answers to the nine questions with students.
  • Homework
    Students will write an essay explaining where Terrell’s speech fits into the history of Civil Rights in the United States in the early 20th century, dedicating a paragraph to each of the following areas: Social, Political, Economic, Environmental, and cultural histories.

Suggested Pacing Guide

Complete the lesson over two 45-minute classes.

Resources

• Dennis Brindell Fradin.  Fight On!: Mary Church Terrell’s Battle for Integration.
  Alison M. Parker. Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) December 14, 2020.
  Mary Church Terrell. A Colored Woman In A White World (Classics in Black Studies) December 4, 2020.
  Mary Church Terrell. The Progress of Colored Women: Three Civil Rights Speeches by the First Black Woman to Receive a College Education in the United States of America, August 19, 2018.