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

1820s

1826

• First African-American graduate from Amherst College: Edward Jones[1]
• First African-American graduate from Bowdoin College: John Brown Russwurm[2]

1830s

1836

• First African-American graduate from Case Western Reserve University: John Sykes Fayette[3]

1840s

1847

• First African American to graduate from a U.S. medical school: Dr. David J. Peck[4] (Rush Medical College)

1849

• First African-American college professor at a predominantly white institution: Charles L. Reason, New York Central College[5]

1860s

1862

• First African-American woman to earn a B.A.: Mary Jane Patterson, Oberlin College[6]

1864

• First African-American woman in the United States to earn an M.D.: Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler[7]

1870s

1870

• First African American admitted to the U.S. Military Academy: James Webster Smith[8]

1872

• First African American midshipman admitted to the United States Naval Academy: James H. Conyers (nominated by Robert B. Elliott of South Carolina)[9]

1873

• First African American educator to lead the Arkansas Industrial University Board of Trustees: Joseph Carter Corbin[10]

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)[11]

1877

• First African-American graduate of the U.S. Military Academy: Henry Ossian Flipper[12]

1879

• First African American to graduate from a formal nursing school: Mary Eliza Mahoney, Boston, Massachusetts[13]

1880s

1883

• First known African-American woman to graduate from one of the Seven Sisters colleges: Hortense Parker (Mount Holyoke College)[14][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.[15][16]

1895

• First African American to earn a doctorate degree (Ph.D.) from Harvard University: W.E.B. Du Bois[17]

20th century

1906

• Dr. James Robert Lincoln Diggs became the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. in Sociology from Illinois Wesleyan University, and the ninth to receive a doctorate of any kind. Diggs went on to became an influential college president, scholar, social activist, and pastor. Under his leadership, Virginia Seminary and College, now known as Virginia University of Lynchburg, a historically black college and university (HBCU), academic quality was said to be as superior as leading northern predominately white colleges and universities.

1910s

1917

• First African-American to enter the University of Oregon: Mabel Byrd[18]

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;[19] Sadie Tanner Mossell, PhD in Economics, University of Pennsylvania, June 15, 1921;[20] Eva B. Dykes, PhD in English Language, Radcliffe College, June 22, 1921.[21] Georgiana Rose Simpson was thus the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in the United States.
• First African-American to graduate from an Oregon public university: Carrie Halsell Ward (Oregon State University).

1923

• First African-American woman to earn a degree in library science: Virginia Proctor Powell Florence.[22][23] She earned the degree (Bachelor of Library Science) from what is now part of the University of Pittsburgh.[24][25][26]

1930s

1931

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

1932

• First African-American Ph.D in anthropology: William Montague Cobb[27][28]

1940s

1940

• First African-American to earn a doctorate in library science: (Eliza Atkins Gleason, who earned it from the University of Chicago)[29]

1943

• First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics: Euphemia Haynes, from Catholic University of America[30]

1945

• First African-American woman to graduate from Columbia Law School: Elreta Alexander-Ralston[31]

1947

• First African-American full-time faculty member at a predominantly white law school: William Robert Ming (University of Chicago Law School)[5]

1948

• First African-American to be admitted to a traditionally white Southern university since Reconstruction: Silas Herbert Hunt,[32] University of Arkansas.
• First African-American male to graduate from Oregon State College: William Tebeau[33]

1949

• First African American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy: Wesley Brown[34]

1950s

1952

• First African-American to graduate from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences: Edith Irby Jones[35]

1956

• First African-American to attend the University of Alabama: Autherine Lucy.[36] Her expulsion from the institution later that year led to the university's President Oliver Carmichael's resignation.[37][38]

1957

• First Black American to receive an undergraduate degree from a formerly segregated Southern college or university: Gwendolyn Lila Toppin, Texas Western College of the University of Texas (now University of Texas at El Paso).[39]

1960s

1960

• First African-American to attend the William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana, which occurred during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on 14 November 1960: Ruby Bridges[40][41]

1961

• First African-American to attend (and in 1965, the first to graduate) dental school at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Dentistry: Donald Randolph Brown, Sr.[42][43]

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.'"[44]

1963

• First African American to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy: Charles V. Bush
• First African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi: James Meredith[45][46]
• Wendell Wilkie Gunn is a retired corporate executive, a former Reagan Administration official, and the first African American student to enroll and graduate from the University of North Alabama in 1965 (then Florence State College) in Florence, Alabama.

1965

• First African American to graduate from the University of Alabama: Vivian Malone Jones[47]

1969

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

1970s

1978

• First person in the state of Arkansas to become board certified in pediatric endocrinology (Dr. Joycelyn Elders).[48]

1980s

1980

• First African-American woman to graduate from (and to attend) the U.S. Naval Academy: Janie L. Mines, graduated in 1980[49][50][51]

References

1. Wills, David W. (2020). "Remembering Edward Jones: First Black Graduate, Missionary Hero, 'Genteel Young Man of Excellent Disposition". In Saxton, Martha (ed.). Amherst in the World. Amherst College Press. pp. 29–50. Retrieved 2025-01-03 – via JSTOR.
2. "John Brown Russwurm Collection, 1819–2000, n.d." Bowdoin College. n.d. Archived from the original on June 23, 2019. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
3. "Recollections from the Archives: John Sykes Fayette". Blog.case.edu. Archived from the original on December 21, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2017.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Williams, Albert E. (2003). Black Warriors: Unique Units and Individuals. Infinity Publishing. p. 19. ISBN 9780741415257. Archived from the original on 2024-02-11. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
9. Harley, Sharon (1996). The timetables of African-American history: a chronology of the most important people and events in African-American history. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 168. ISBN 9780684815787. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
10. Preston, Izola. "Joseph Carter Corbin". Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Butler Center. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
11. Mickens, Ronald E. (2002). Edward Bouchet: The First African-American Doctorate. World Scientific Publishing Company Incorporated. ISBN 9789810249090.
12. "Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper". Center of Military History – United States Army. Archived from the original on September 22, 2009. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
13. Darraj, Susan Muaddi (2009-01-01). Mary Eliza Mahoney. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1438107608.
14. Hine, Darlene Clark (2005). Black women in America. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. p. 385. ISBN 978-0-19-515677-5. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
15. "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.
16. "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.
17. 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.
18. "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.
19. Sarah Bartlett (2010-10-08). "Georgiana Simpson (1866–1944) • BlackPast". Blackpast.org. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
20. 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. Vol. 1. Routledge Chapman & Hall. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-0-415-12715-8. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
21. Williams, Dewitt S. (1985). She Fulfilled the Impossible Dream: The Story of Eva B. Dykes. ISBN 9780828002745.
22. "Virginia Proctor Powell Florence: A Remarkable Oberlin Alumna Librarian". Library Persectives \via=digitalcommons.oberlin.edu. No. 32. Spring 2005. p. 5.
23. 175 Years of Black Pitt People and Notable Milestones. (2004). Blue Black and Gold 2004: Chancellor Mark A. Norenberg Reports on the Pitt African American Experience, 44. Retrieved on 2009-05-22.
24. "Claiming Their Citizenship: African American Women From 1624–2009". Nwhm.org. Archived from the original on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
25. Celeste Kimbrough (2004-03-18). "University of Pittsburgh to Honor First African American Librarian In Plaque Dedication Ceremony April 2 | University of Pittsburgh News". News.pitt.edu. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
26. "05-3180-Oberlin-Issue No.32" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-10.
27. Harrison and Harrison, 1999. African-American Pioneers in Anthropology. New York: University of Illinois Press.
28. Rankin-Hill and Blakey (1994). "W. Montague Cobb (1904–1990): Physical Anthropologist, Anatomist, and Activist". American Anthropological Association. 96: 74–96. doi:10.1525/aa.1994.96.1.02a00040 – via Wiley Online.
29. Julie Des Jardins (21 July 2004). Women and the Historical Enterprise in America: Gender, Race and the Politics of Memory: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Memory, 1880–1945. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 172–. ISBN 978-0-8078-6152-3.
30. "Euphemia Lofton Haynes, first African American woman mathematician". math.buffalo.edu. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
31. "Honoring Judge Elreta Alexander '45, the First Black Woman to Graduate From Columbia Law". Columbia Law. 2020-12-16. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
32. Buckelew, Richard A. "Silas Herbert Hunt". Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Butler Center. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
33. Group, Sinclair Broadcast (29 May 2014). "Oregon State to name new residence hall after pioneering student". KVAL. Retrieved 2016-01-30. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
34. Schneller, Robert John (2005). Breaking the color barrier: the U.S. Naval Academy's first black midshipmen and the struggle for racial equality. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0814740138.
35. "University to Graduate First Negro Student". Hope Star. Hope, Arkansas. May 19, 1952. p. 3. Retrieved December 26, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
36. "Civil rights pioneer Vivian Jones dies". USA Today. 2005-10-13. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
37. "Expelled in 1956, Autherine Lucy Foster Receives Honorary Doctorate from University of Alabama". 6 May 2019.
38. "Education: Goodbye to 'Bama – TIME". Time. Time. 1956-11-19. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
39. Vierra, P. (January 2021). "The UTEP Miners History Sourcebook". Additional Items.
40. Anderson, James; Byrne, Dara N. (2004). The Unfinished Agenda of Brown v. Board of Education. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons. p. 169. ISBN 9780471649267. OCLC 53038681.
41. Miller, Michelle (November 12, 2010). "Ruby Bridges, Rockwell Muse, Goes Back to School". CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
42. "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.
43. "Brown-Ewing Family Reunion 2012". Family Reunion Websites powered by MyEvent.com.
44. "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.
45. Dave, Paresh (February 18, 2014). "James Meredith talks about vandals". The Los Angeles Times.
46. Robert L. Harris; Rosalyn Terborg-Penn (5 September 2008). The Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939. Columbia University Press. pp. 298–. ISBN 978-0-231-13811-6.
47. Martin, Douglas (October 14, 1995). "Vivian Malone Jones, 63, Dies; First Black Graduate of University of Alabama". The New York Times. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
48. U.S. National Library of Medicine. 03 June 2015. "Dr. M. Joyelyn Elders" Retrieved 01 February 2021.
49. Cabiao, Howard (December 2010). "Mines, Janie L. (1958– )". Black Past. BlackPast.org. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
50. United States Office of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Equal Opportunity and Safety Policy (1985). Black Americans in defense of our nation. US Department of Defense. p. 159. Retrieved 30 March 2017. {{cite book}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
51. Mines, Janie L. (June 1988). Integrated change management (PDF). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 30 March 2017.

Notes

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