Historically, the number of Black students of any gender attending or graduating from universities has been lower than any other group. In fact, a majority of the Black population in the history of the United States was prohibited from learning to read or write.
Today, the number of Black students enrolling in higher education continues to increase. However, excluding the historically black colleges, the low enrollment numbers become even lower when we focus on females only.
As we revise and acknowledge the facts, a look into the past can help put into perspective how Black women in higher education have experienced the cultural adversity for centuries, up to this date.
Once and again, Black women have proven to be resilient and strong. The following is an acknowledgement to the resilience and strength of Black women who serve as examples of role models for many women in higher education today.
Since it was founded in 1833, the Oberlin College in Ohio was open to Blacks and women and has a long history of dedication to African American higher education.
In 1850, Lucy Ann Stanton received a certificate in literature from Oberlin College. However, she did not receive a bachelor’s degree.
It was not until 1862 that Oberlin College granted a bachelor’s degree to Mary Jane Patterson, a teacher. Mary Jane Patterson, who was born into slavery, is considered the first Black woman to graduate from an established four-year college in the United States.
The first Black female medical student, Rebecca Lee, graduated from the New England Female Medical College in 1864. In 1865, before the end of the Civil War, approximately 40 Black students had graduated from colleges and universities, all of which were in the north of the United States.
In 1869, Mary Ann Shadd Carey became the first Black woman student to enroll at Howard University’s Law Department. She graduated in 1884 at the age of 61.
By 1870, approximately 22 historically Black colleges and universities were enrolling students in the United States. And in 1872, Charlotte Ray became the first Black woman to graduate from Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C.
By 1880, 45 Black colleges and universities were in existence in the U.S. And in 1881, the Spelman College was founded in Atlanta, Georgia, becoming the first historically Black college for women in the United States.
By 1890, about 64 Black colleges were enrolling students. In the same year, Ida Gray graduated from the University of Michigan Dental School, becoming the first Black woman to earn a degree in dentistry.
In 1897, Anita Hemmings became the first Black student to graduate from Vassar College. She passed for White until she was outed a few weeks prior to graduation. Although the university expressed outrage at the deception, it granted Hammings a degree. In the same year, Lutie A. Lytle graduated from Central Tennessee College Law School, and a year later, she returned to the school as a member of the faculty.
In 1899, Mary Annette Anderson of Middlebury College became the first Black woman elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
By the turn of the century, in 1900, there were 78 Black colleges and universities in the United States, over 2,000 Black men and women had earned higher education degrees, with about 390 from White colleges and universities.
Then something happened, a step backwards. In 1904, the Kentucky legislature passed the Day Law, prohibiting interracial education, resulting in the Berea College shutting down its doors to Blacks for nearly half a century. The college established Lincoln Institute for Black students.
In 1908, the Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded at Howard University, becoming the first sorority for Black college women.
In 1921, Eva B. Dykes from Radcliffe College, Sadie T. Mossell Alexander from the University of Pennsylvania, and Georgiana R. Simpson from the University of Chicago were the first African American women to earn doctorates.
In 1925, Clara Burrill Bruce became the first Black editor-in-chief on the Boston University Law Review.
1931, Jane Matilda Bolin was the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School. And in 1939, she became the United States’ first Black woman judge.
By 1932, there were 117 historically Black institutions of higher education, 36 public, 81 private, and five were devoted to graduate level education.
In 1941, the Missouri State Supreme Court decided the Lucille Bluford vs the University of Missouri case. The University was ordered to admit Bluford to its journalism school only if the historically Black Lincoln University did not admit her. As a result, Lincoln created a journalism program.
A year later, in 1942, the Catholic University awarded the first Black Ph.D. in geology to Marguerite Thomas Williams.
In 1945, Adelaide Cromwell joined the Sociology Department at Smith College, her alma mater in Northampton, Massachusetts, becoming the first Black faculty member at a highly selective liberal arts college.
In 1947, W. Allison Davis, a professor of Education at the University of Chicago, became the first Black faculty member to be appointed to a tenured position at one of the United States’ highest-ranked universities.
In 1948, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Sipuel vs University of Oklahoma that Ada Sipuel be admitted to the law school at the University of Oklahoma. The ruling states that Blacks have the right to a legal education of the same quality as Whites.
In 1954, the Supreme Court ordered the University of Florida to admit Black students and ruled that racial segregation in schools in unconstitutional in Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
In 1956, Lila Fenwick became the first Black woman to graduate from Harvard Law School. Fenwick later led the United Nations’ Human Rights Division. In the same year, Autherine Lucy became the first Black woman to enroll at the University of Alabama. But after riots engulfed the campus, she was expelled for “her own safety.”
In 1965, Vivian Malone became the first Black graduate of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Two years earlier, in 1963, President John F. Kennedy had sent troops to the University to ease her and James Hood’s admission; they were the University’s first Black students.
In 1970, Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, became the first elected Black woman at Yale University Corporation. In 1976, she was named to Spelman College’s board of trustees.
In 1975, Eileen J. Southern became the first Black woman tenured as a full professor at Harvard University.
When in 1976, the U.S. Naval Academy admitted women for the first time ever, Janie L. Mines became the sole Black out of the 81 women.
In 1982, Annette Gordon became the first Black woman editor on the Harvard Law Review.
In 1987, Johnnetta Betsch Cole became the first Black woman president of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
A year later, in 1988, Sylvia A. Boone became the first Black woman tenured faculty member at Yale University.
In 1990, the change of decade saw Marguerite Ross Barnett becoming the first Black woman to lead a major university when she was named president of the University of Houston.
In 1993, Condoleezza Rice, who was appointed provost at Stanford University, became Stanford’s first Black Chief Academic Officer. In the same year, Barbara Ross-Lee, sister of Diana Ross of The Supremes, became the first Black person to head a predominantly White medical school in the United States when she was appointed Dean of the medical school at Ohio University.
In 1995, Ruth J. Simmons became the first Black woman to be elected president of Smith College, becoming the first Black woman to hold this position at a highly selective liberal arts college. Later, in 2001, she became president of Brown University, becoming the first Black person to lead an Ivy League institution.
In 2002, The Citadel awarded diplomas to seven Black women for the first time.
In 2007, Natasha Trethewey, Associate Professor of English at Emory University in Atlanta, was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
Also in 2007, Brittney Exline of Colorado Springs enrolled as a freshman student at the University of Pennsylvania. At age 15 she is the youngest Black woman ever to enroll at an Ivy League university.
In 2007, Alicia Jillian Hardy became the first African American woman to achieve a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In 2008, Evelynn Hammonds, the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, professor of African American studies, and senior vice provost for faculty development and diversity, was named Dean of Harvard College becoming the first woman and the first African American to be named Dean of the undergraduate college.
In 2021, despite some colleges offering systemic changes for Black students, there is still a lot of work to be done to fill the gap and support everyone willing to become a part of the educated generations of the future, and to support those faculty members who have a love for education.