List of African-American pioneers in desegregation of higher education

This is a list of African-American pioneers in desegregation of higher education.

Contents
18th century 19th century: 1800s • 1810s • 1820s • 1830s • 1840s • 1850s • 1860s • 1870s • 1880s • 1890s 20th century: 1900s • 1910s • 1920s • 1930s • 1940s • 1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s 21st century: 2000s • 2010s See also References

19th century

1840s

1847

• First African American to graduate from a U.S. medical school: Dr. David J. Peck[1] (Rush Medical College)

1849

• First African-American college professor at a predominantly white institution: Charles L. Reason, New York Central College[2]

1860s

1862

• First African-American woman to earn a B.A.: Mary Jane Patterson, Oberlin College[3]

1864

• First African-American woman in the United States to earn an M.D.: Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler[4]

1870s

1876

• First African American to earn a doctorate degree from an American university: Edward Alexander Bouchet (Yale College Ph.D., physics; also first African American to graduate from Yale, 1874)[5]

1879

• First African American to graduate from a formal nursing school: Mary Eliza Mahoney, Boston, Massachusetts.[6]

1880s

1883

• First known African-American woman to graduate from one of the Seven Sisters colleges: Hortense Parker (Mount Holyoke College)[7][Note 1]

1890s

1890

• First African-American woman to earn a dental degree in the United States: Ida Rollins, who earned it from the University of Michigan.[8][9]

1895

• First African American to earn a doctorate degree (Ph.D.) from Harvard University: W.E.B. Du Bois[10]

20th century

1910s

1917

• First African-American to enter the University of Oregon: Mabel Byrd[11]

1920s

1921

• Three African American women earn PhDs within nine days of each other: Georgiana R. Simpson, PhD in German Philology, University of Chicago, June 14, 1921;[12] Sadie Tanner Mossell, PhD in Economics, University of Pennsylvania, June 15, 1921;[13] Eva B. Dykes, PhD in English Language, Radcliffe College, June 22, 1921[14]

1930s

1931

• First African-American woman to graduate from Yale Law School: Jane Matilda Bolin

1940s

1947

• First African-American full-time faculty member at a predominantly white law school: William Robert Ming (University of Chicago Law School)[2]

1948

• First African-American male to graduate from Oregon State College: William Tebeau[15]

1950s

1952

• First African-American graduate from University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences: Edith Irby Jones[16]

1956

• First African-American student to attend the University of Alabama: Autherine Lucy.[17] Her expulsion from the institution later that year led to the university's President Oliver Carmichael's resignation.[18][19]

1960s

1961

• Dr. Donald Randolph Brown, Sr. DDS (died July 2009) was the first African American to attend, and graduate, dental school at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Dentistry, graduating in 1965. He became the first African American to attend the school in 1961.[20][20][21]

1962

• Dr. Tom Jones, D.D.S., an African-American student who had won a scholarship from Phillips Petroleum Company entered University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Dentistry. He became the second African American to attend, and graduate, dental school, graduating in 1965. Some of the school's patients would refuse to let the two African-American students treat them. Speaking in 2007, Jones said, "Dean Hamilton Robinson and Assistant Dean Jack Wells refused to negotiate. "They would say, 'Either they work on you or nobody works on you.'"[22]

1963

• First African American to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy: Charles V. Bush.

1969

• First African-American graduate of Harvard Business School: Lillian Lincoln

References

1. Ward, Thomas J. (2003). Black physicians in the Jim Crow South. University of Arkansas Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-61075-072-1. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
2. Jackson, Sandra; Johnson, Richard Greggory (2011). The black professoriat: negotiating a habitable space in the academy. Peter Lang. pp. 2–4. ISBN 978-1-4331-1027-6. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
3. Logan, Rayford W. (1969). Howard University: The First Hundred Years, 1867 - 1967. New York University Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-8147-0263-5. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
4. Farmer, Vernon L.; Wynn, Evelyn Shepherd (2012). Voices of Historical and Contemporary Black American Pioneers. ABC-CLIO. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-313-39224-5. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
5. Mickens, Ronald E. (2002). Edward Bouchet: The First African-American Doctorate. World Scientific Publishing Company Incorporated. ISBN 9789810249090.
6. Darraj, Susan Muaddi (2009-01-01). Mary Eliza Mahoney. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1438107608.
7. Hine, Darlene Clark (2005). Black women in America. 1. Oxford University Press. p. 385. ISBN 978-0-19-515677-5. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
8. "June 2002 CDA Journal - Feature Article, Copyright 2002 Journal of the California Dental Association". Cda.org. Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
9. "Black History Fact of the Week: Ida Gray Nelson Rollins | Our Weekly - African American News | Black News | Black Entertainment | Black America". Our Weekly. Archived from the original on 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
10. Moore, Jacqueline M. (2003). Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, and the Struggle for Racial Uplift. The African American history series. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-8420-2994-0. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
11. "Untold Stories: Black History at the University of Oregon | UO Special Collections and University Archives Blog". blogs.uoregon.edu. UO Special Collections and University Archives. 2016-02-04. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
12. Sarah Bartlett (2010-10-08). "Georgiana Simpson (1866-1944) • BlackPast". Blackpast.org. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
13. Malveaux, Julianne (1997). "Missed Opportunity: Sadie Teller Mossell Alexander and the Economics Profession". In Thomas D. Boston (ed.). A Different Vision: Africa American Economic Thought. 1. Routledge Chapman & Hall. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-0-415-12715-8. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
14. Williams, Dewitt S. (1985). She Fulfilled the Impossible Dream: The Story of Eva B. Dykes. ISBN 9780828002745.
15. Group, Sinclair Broadcast. "Oregon State to name new residence hall after pioneering student". KVAL. Retrieved 2016-01-30.
16. "University to Graduate First Negro Student". Hope Star. Hope, Arkansas. May 19, 1952. p. 3. Retrieved December 26, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
17. "Civil rights pioneer Vivian Jones dies". USA Today. 2005-10-13. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
18. https://www.apr.org/post/expelled-1956-autherine-lucy-foster-receives-honorary-doctorate-university-alabama
19. "Education: Goodbye to 'Bama - TIME". Content.time.com. 1956-11-19. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
20. "Honoring the Legacy of the School's First African-American Graduate" (PDF). Explorer: UMKC School of Dentistry Alumni News. 72 (2): 6. Winter 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
21. "Brown-Ewing Family Reunion 2012". Family Reunion Websites powered by MyEvent.com.
22. "Jones named alumni award winner". News : University of Missouri - Kansas City. 2007-03-29. Archived from the original on 2015-02-26. Retrieved 2015-02-26.

Notes

1. Parker graduated from Mount Holyoke when it was still a seminary.