Mary Morris Burnett Talbert (1866-1923) was an African American educator, feminist, civil rights activist, and lecturer.

Born on September 18, 1866, to Cornelius and Caroline (Nicholls) Burnett of Oberlin, Ohio, Mary Morris Burnett spent her childhood in the city of her birth. At the age of 16 she was graduated from high school and, with the aid of a benefactor, enrolled in Oberlin College where she pursued a degree in the literary program. Mary Burnett was popular among her fellow students, who elected her treasurer of Aeolian, one of the school's two literary clubs for young women. When Burnett, the only African American in her graduating class, was one of six student representatives at her class day exercises, she read a poem which she had written for the occasion. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1886, some of her biographers contend that she later enrolled in courses at the University...