Mary Church Terrell: Part II

Note: read Part I.

The beginnings of married life did not come with much ease for Mary. These were difficult years, marked by the heartache of multiple miscarriages. And then there was the lynching of her friend in Memphis. "When a woman has been closely associated with the victim of the mob from childhood and knows him to be above reproach, the horror and anguish which rend her heart are indescribable," she wrote.

But Mary had always been resolute. So with time, grief turned into resolve. She and her husband had a child. And as Mary embraced motherhood, she also began pursuing a life in political activism, starting with combating lynchings.

At the time, the prevailing belief was that lynching served as punishment for black men accused of brutal crimes, particularly the rape of white women. It was spoken of as rough justice, and few stopped to examine whether it was justice at all.

Mary and others, including famed journalist Ida B. Wells, did, exposing the lie at the center of that narrative. Ida documented case after case where the victims had not