Rosalyn Terborg-Penn facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rosalyn Terborg-Penn
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Terborg-Penn at the U.S. National Archives in 2015
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| Born | October 22, 1941 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
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| Died | December 25, 2018 (aged 77) Columbia, Maryland, U.S.
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Rosalyn Terborg-Penn (born October 22, 1941 – died December 25, 2018) was an American history professor and author. She was an expert in African-American history and the history of black women. Her important book, African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920, brought to light the stories of black women in the women's suffrage movement in the United States. This movement worked to get women the right to vote. She taught at Morgan State University.
Early Life and Learning
Rosalyn Marian Terborg was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother, Jeanne Terborg, worked in an office. Her father, Jacques A. Terborg, was a Suriname-born jazz musician.
In 1951, her family moved to Queens, another part of New York City. She finished John Adams High School in 1959. In 1963, she earned a history degree from Queens College, City University of New York.
Terborg-Penn then moved to Washington, D.C. There, she earned her master's degree from George Washington University. She studied United States diplomatic history, which is about how countries interact. Later, she earned her Ph.D. from Howard University. Her Ph.D. focused on African-American history before the year 1865.
Early Activism for Rights
While at Queens College, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn was a founding member of the college's NAACP group. The NAACP works for equal rights for all people. She led a protest when the school would not let Malcolm X speak on campus.
She also organized student trips. One trip was to Prince Edward County in Virginia. In that county, schools were closed by officials who did not want black and white students to learn together. While there, Terborg-Penn and other students taught black students.
When she moved to Washington, D.C., she joined a group called D.C. Students For Civil Rights. This group worked to support the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law helped end unfair treatment based on race.
Her Career as a Historian
In 1969, Terborg-Penn started teaching at Morgan State University (MSU). She helped create the first Ph.D. program for history students at MSU. A Ph.D. is the highest university degree. She also taught at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and Howard Community College.
In 1977, she helped start the Association of Black Women Historians. She was the first national director of this group. This association helps black women who study history.
In 1998, she published her famous book, African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920. This book showed that the history of the women's suffrage movement often left out the important work of black women. She found more than 120 black women who helped fight for the right to vote but were not well-known.
Her book explained that as the goals of black activists changed, the history was often written to focus only on white women. This book is now seen as a very important work in the history of African-American women.
Notable Works
- Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn and Andrea Benton Rushing. Women in Africa and the African Diaspora: A Reader. Washington: Howard University Press (1997). ISBN: 0882581945
