# @oberlincollege on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DGn974MoZNs
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/27530220-oberlincollege-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/c2892fcf58.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-02-28T17:14:43.000+00:00

## Caption

For the last day of Black History Month, we are showcasing our main library's namesake, Mary Church Terrell, Class of 1884. Her experiences at Oberlin led to a lifetime of activism. While a student, she founded clubs, served as president of a literary society, sang in the Musical Union, and edited "The Oberlin Review." When she earned her bachelor’s degree, she became one of the first Black women in the United States to earn a college degree. 

Terrell later wrote in her memoir, "A Colored Woman in a White World," that “all during my college course I dreamed of the day when I could promote the welfare of my race.” In 1952, she stood on the picket line in front of Murphy’s Dime Store in Washington, D.C., protesting the establishment's segregated lunch counter. This picket line was a component of a campaign she had launched two years earlier that led to the desegregation of dining establishments in D.C. and paved the way for lunch counter sit-ins throughout the South. 

To learn more about Terrell's life and how the main library was named after her, see the Winter 2018 Oberlin Alumni Magazine article written by Rebekkah Rubin ’13 at the link in our bio.

📸: courtesy of @oberlincollegearchives, Library of Congress

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 210
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 1

## Credits

These are the roles credited on Gondola. Credits may be incomplete.
A brand, account owner, or featured person is not necessarily the creator.

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| oberlincollege | @oberlincollege | https://gondola.cc/oberlincollege | University |
| Lucy Curtis | @1ucyyy | https://gondola.cc/1ucyyy | Copywriter |
| Lucy Curtis | @1ucyyy | https://gondola.cc/1ucyyy | Social Media Coordinator |

---
Copyright (c) Gondola