Fingerlakes1.com Menu This week the National Women’s Hall of Fame introduced several new members in a virtual setting. “While we are living in unprecedented times the NWHF wanted to use this otherwise tumultuous year to innovate the way we operate, and reflect on our past,” the HOF said in a post on its Facebook page about the virtual event. It was held Thursday, December 10th. Here’s more on the inductees: Mary Church Terrell (1863 –1954) Mary Church Terrell, born during the Civil War, was one of the most prominent activists of her era with a career that spanned well into the civil rights movements of the1950’s. Terrell was one of the first Black women to earn a college degree, in Classics at Oberlin College, and one of the first to earn an MA. She taught Latin at the M Street school— the first Black public high school in the nation—in Washington, DC. In 1896, she was the first Black woman in the United States appointed to the school board of a major city, serving the District of Columbia until 1906. She was a founding member and served as the first president of the National Association of Colored Women, was a charter member of both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Colored Women’s League of Washington. She was a founding member of the National Association of College Women. A dedicated suffragist during her Oberlin years, she continued to be active within circles in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).