2 august 1968 & nacw republished mary church terrell's 1940 autobiography
#OTD 2 August 1968 The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (1601 R St NW) was ready to distribute copies of Mary Church Terrell's autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World, at its convention in Chicago beginning 3 August. In early April 1968, Mrs. Mamie B. Reese, NACW president, announced that the organization was reprinting the autobiography. It was originally published in 1940 in DC by Ransdell Publishing.
The dust jacket states, "We hope this autobiography will persuade others to take a meaningful part in solving the human problems in today's society. ...Mrs. Phyllis Terrell Langston [Terrell's daughter] gave...this splendid gift, the right of republication of "A Colored Woman in a White World," to N.A.C.W.C. We shall ever be grateful to her for this gift which means so much not only to the more than 120,000 club women in the organization, but to people everyywhere." Its republication occurred 14 years after the death of Terrell on 24 July 1954.
Mary Church Terrell was the first president of the NACW. Founded in 1896, it is considered the first national civil rights organization.
Your comments are welcome below. Were you, a family members or neighbor a member of the NACW? Did you attend the Chicago convention? Did you receive one of the books? Were you involved in the republication of the autobiography? Do you remember the headquarters at 16th & R? Do you have photographs or other ephemera? You may comment privately here.
Photo source: Courtesy of author. A Colored Woman in a White World (1968) is part of author's personal collection.
"Association to Reprint Autobiography," Evening Star 7 April 1968.
For correspondence on the republication, see p. 19 of the table of contents for the microfilm edition of the NACW records.
Click here to read Terrell's c1906 article, "What It Means to Be Colored in the Capital of the United States," which is one of the chapters in her autobiography.
See online history of NACW here.
Brittney Cooper, Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women 2017.
Treva B. Lindsey, Colored No More: Black Womanhood in Washington, DC. 2017.