Whereas Mary Church Terrell was born on September 23, 1863, to former slaves; Whereas Mary Church Terrell’s father, Robert Reed Church, was a successful businessman and one of the South’s first African-American millionaires; Whereas Mary Church Terrell attended the Antioch College laboratory school and Oberlin College; Whereas Mary Church Terrell was one of the first African-American women to attend college; Whereas Mary Church Terrell’s belief in the importance of education led her to the District of Columbia in 1887; Whereas Mary Church Terrell taught at the M Street Colored High School, now known as Paul Laurence Dunbar High School; Whereas Mary Church Terrell was the first African-American woman in the United States to be appointed to a school board; Whereas Mary Church Terrell believed that the end to racial discrimination could be achieved through education, work, and community activism; Whereas Mary Church Terrell’s activism was sparked by the lynching of an old friend, Thomas Moss, in 1892; Whereas Mary Church Terrell used her position to fight racial and gender discrimination; Whereas Mary Church Terrell participated in antilynching campaigns alongside Ida B. Wells-Barnett; Whereas Mary Church Terrell led the fight to desegregate eating places in the District of Columbia; Whereas District of Columbia laws of 1872 and 1873 required all restaurants to serve any respectable, well-behaved person regardless of color ; Whereas Mary Church Terrell was 86 at the time she launched the campaign to enforce these civil rights laws; Whereas Mary Church Terrell and several colleagues entered Thompson Restaurant on February 28, 1950; Whereas the group was refused service on the basis of their race; Whereas John R. Thompson Co. was prosecuted for violating these laws; Whereas Mary Church Terrell continued her fight through boycotts, picketing, and sit-ins at restaurants around the District of Columbia