Civil Rights Researcher

Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) educator, women's rights advocate, and civil rights activist, was the founding president of the National Association of Colored Women and, in 1909, a founder of the NAACP. Her papers are part of the “Suffrage: Women Fight for the Vote” topical campaign, which brings together stories from women on the front lines of the largest reform movement in American history. Transcribing these pages will allow you to explore the long struggle for equality through the diaries, letters, and speeches of the women who fought for the right to vote and changed political history 100 years ago.

How do I get started? Just go to the Library of Congress website and start transcribing right now.  

How much time will this take? This is a low time commitment. Spend as much time as you want, one hour or many. You will be helping these national treasures to be searchable and discoverable by all!

How do I expand this narrative arc? If historical research or Minority Rights are in your narrative arc, consider building on this interest with one of the following:

• Take an amazing summer course at U.C. Berkely entitled African American Studies - Race, Class, and Gender.

• If your school offers the ability to do an independent study or a National History Day project, consider doing a research project on African American Studies, or even one of these historical figures, using some material from in the letters you transcribe. Note: these letters are Primary Sources for historical research purposes which makes any such research project even more impressive!

• Consider expanding your research into a more extensive paper or essay, and then submit it to The Concord Review for publication.

HOT TIP: This is a great little project to kick off or complement a general interest in African American Studies or even just general historical research. Make sure to build on this project with some larger and more time-intensive commitments in these interest areas.