Rosalyn Terborg-Penn (October 22, 1941 – December 25, 2018) was an American professor of history and author. Terborg-Penn specialized in

African-American history African-American history started with the forced transportation of List of ethnic groups of Africa, Africans to North America in the 16th and 17th centuries. The European colonization of the Americas, and the resulting Atlantic slave trade, ...

and black women's history. Her book ''African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920'' was a ground-breaking work that recovered the histories of black women in the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was a faculty member of

Morgan State University Morgan State University (Morgan State or MSU) is a Public university, public historically black colleges and universities, historically black research university in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland. It is the largest of Maryland's historically bla ...

Early life and education

Born Rosalyn Marian Terborg in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. Her mother Jeanne Terborg (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Van Horn; 1916–2007) was a clerical worker from

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, and her father Jacques A. Terborg (d. 1997) was a

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

-born

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

musician. In 1951, her family moved to

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, where she graduated from John Adams High School in 1959. In 1963, she received a degree in history from

Queens College, City University of New York Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

. Terborg-Penn moved to Washington, D.C., earning her

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in United States diplomatic history from the

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

. Terborg-Penn then obtained her Ph.D. from

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

in African-American history before 1965.

Early activism

While at Queens College, she was a charter of the college's

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

chapter. Terborg-Penn headed a protest on campus when the school would not let

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...

speak on campus. She also organized student road trips, including a trip to Prince Edward County in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, where schools were closed by anti-

racial integration Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation), leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of Race (classification of human beings), race, and t ...

school officials. While there, Terborg-Penn and other students taught black students. Upon moving to Washington, D.C. to attend The

, she joined the D.C. Students For Civil Rights group who lobbied for the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...

Career

In 1969, Terborg-Penn began teaching at

(MSU). She developed the first Ph.D. program at MSU for history students. She also was a faculty member at the

University of Maryland, Baltimore The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1807, it is the second oldest college in Maryland and comprises some of the oldest professional schools of dentistry, law, me ...

and Howard Community College. In 1977 she co-founded the Association of Black Women Historians and served as the organization's first national director. In 1998, she published ''African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920''. The work critiqued the received history of the

women's suffrage in the United States Women's suffrage, or the right of women to vote, was established in the United States over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, first in various U.S. states, states and localities, then nationally in 1920 with the ratification ...

for having erased the contributions of black women, and identified more than 120 black women that had played roles in the fight for the vote but had been given little recognition. The book argued that, as the goals of black activists diverged from their white counterparts over issues of racial oppression, history was written with white women at the center. The work is considered a seminal work in African-American women's history.

Notable works

* * *Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn and Andrea Benton Rushing. ''Women in Africa and the African Diaspora: A Reader.'' Washington: Howard University Press (1997). *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn 1941 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers Activists from New York City African-American activists African-American historians 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American writers George Washington University alumni Historians from New York (state) Historians of the United States Howard University alumni John Adams High School (Queens) alumni Morgan State University faculty Queens College, City University of New York alumni University of Maryland, Baltimore faculty Writers from Brooklyn 21st-century African-American women writers