Mary Church Terrell is doing a great job
Mary Church Terrell not only co-founded the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) but also was married to a man named Heberton, which is delightful.
The motto of the NACW was "lifting as we climb" which is so damn inspirational considering the times in which she lived that it makes me tear up. Terrell taught at a college in the 1880s (amazing!), got a Bachelor's and Master's from Oberlin (so neat!), worked on anti-lynching campaigns with Ida B. Wells (wow!), and picketed the White House with the National Woman's Party when Woodrow Wilson was being a skeeze and wouldn't endorse giving women the vote.
She challenged segregation in 1950 at age 86 by protesting at a restaurant in DC. Let's remember that this woman was teaching college in the 1880s, so almost SEVENTY years prior to this, and seventy years later, she's still having to protest being able to eat in the same damn restaurant as other Americans. History is trash sometimes. But also has opposite of trash people! Go Mary Church Terrell!