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List of African-American mathematicians facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The bestselling book and film, Hidden Figures, celebrated the role of African-American women mathematicians in the space race, and the barriers they had to overcome to study and pursue a career in mathematics and related fields. Although much of African Americans' other achievements in careers in mathematical science, in research, education, and applied fields have also been "hidden", the community of mathematicians has been growing. African Americans represented around 4-6% of the graduates majoring in mathematics and statistics in the US between 2000 and 2015. This list catalogs Wikipedia articles on African Americans in mathematics, as well as early recipients of doctoral degrees in mathematics and mathematics education and other landmarks, and books and studies about African-American mathematicians.

Historical landmarks

Title page Benjamin Banneker's 1792 Almanac
MainandMiner Hall
Howard University in 1868
David Blackwell
David Blackwell, 1967

1792: Benjamin Banneker calculated planetary movements and predicted eclipses in his Almanac.

1867: Howard University established its Department of Mathematics.

1895: Joseph Carter Corbin, president of Branch Normal College (now University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff), published his first problem in American Mathematical Monthly.

1916: Dudley Weldon Woodard became a charter member of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

1925: Elbert Frank Cox is the first African-American awarded a doctoral degree in mathematics, from Cornell University.

1929: Dudley Weldon Woodard is the first African-American mathematician known to publish in a mathematics journal, with an article "On two-dimensional analysis situs with special reference to the Jordan curve-theorem" in Fundamenta Mathematicae.

1943: Euphemia Lofton Haynes is the first African-American woman to gain a doctoral degree in mathematics.

1951: The MAA Board of Governors adopted a resolution to conduct their scientific and business meetings, and social gatherings "without discrimination as to race, creed, or color".

1956: Gloria Ford Gilmer is believed to be the first African-American woman to publish mathematical research, co-authoring an article in Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society and another in Pacific Journal of Mathematics.

1969: 17 African-American mathematicians met in New Orleans, forming the National Association of Mathematicians to "promote excellence in the mathematical sciences and to promote the mathematical development of under-represented American minorities".

1973: Mathematician David Blackwell becomes the first African-American in any field to be elected to membership of the National Academy of Sciences.

1976: Howard University establishes the first PhD program in mathematics at a historically black college or university under mathematics department chair James Donaldson and professor J. Ernest Wilkins Jr.

1980: The Claytor Lecture – now the Claytor-Woodard Lecture in honor of William W S Claytor and Dudley Weldon Woodard – is established at MAA.

1982: Civil rights leader, Bob Moses (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), used his MacArthur Fellowship to start the Algebra Project, a national mathematics literacy program for high schools.

1988: The MAA established a task force that led to the formation in 1990 of SUMMA, a program for the Strengthening of Underrepresented Minority Mathematics Achievement.

Freeman Hrabowski 2012 Shankbone
Freeman Hrabowski 2012
CAARMS group on the stairs
CAARMS 1995
"Hidden Figures" Screening at NMAAHC (NHQ201612140046)
Hidden Figures Screening at NMAAHC in 2016

1992: Mathematician Freeman Hrabowski becomes President of the University of Maryland.

1994: The Blackwell Lecture is established for MAA meetings, jointly by MAA and NAM, as well as the NAM Wilkins Lecture and Bharucha-Reid Lecture.

1995: The first CAARMS – Conference for African American Researchers in Mathematical Sciences – was held, to highlight the work of researchers and students and encourage the careers of under-represented groups in mathematics. Proceedings are published by the American Mathematical Society in its Contemporary Mathematics series.

1997: Kathleen Adebola Okikiolu was the first African American awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship and Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

1997 Scott W. Williams produced the website, Mathematicians of the African Diaspora, a collection of African-American mathematicians, newsletter, and resources on Africans in mathematics. By early 2007 it had close to 5 million visitors. The website has been cataloged by the Library of Congress.

1999: The mathematics departments of the 25 highest-ranked universities in the US had more than 900 faculty members, of whom 4 were African-American.

2003: Clarence F. Stephens is the first African-American to be honored with the Mathematical Association of America's (MAA) most prestigious award, for Distinguished Service to Mathematics.

2004: The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) and MAA formally established the Etta Zuber Falconer Lecture.

2015: Katherine Coleman Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

2016: Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterley, is published, going on to win multiple awards and reach number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. It tells the story of African-American women mathematicians at NASA during the space race.

2017: The film adaptation, Hidden Figures, is nominated for best movie at the Academy Awards, and Katherine Johnson makes an appearance at the ceremony.

2020: The updated website Mathematicians of the African Diaspora debuted in October. The new site is supported by the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM) and the Educational Advancement Foundation (EAF).

Doctoral degrees in mathematics

The lists of doctoral degrees, including the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in mathematics and Doctor of Education (EdD), draw from these sources: Turner (1971), Greene (1974), Williams (1997), Zeitz (2008), Shakil (2010), and the Mathematical Association of America. (Please add any further candidates for these lists here, or on the talk page.)

First men and women

These are the first 12 known PhDs by African-American men and women in mathematics, in alphabetical order for years with multiple doctorate holders, with women first.

Year Gender Photo Name Awarded Dissertation title Ref.
1925 (M)  Portrait of Elbert Cox Elbert Frank Cox Cornell University The polynomial solutions of the difference equation af(x+1) + bf(x) = φ(x)
1928 (M) External Dudley Weldon Woodard University of Pennsylvania On two-dimensional analysis situs with special reference to the Jordan Curve Theorem
1933 (M) External William Schieffelin Claytor University of Pennsylvania Topological immersion of peanian continua in a spherical surface
1934 (M) External Walter Richard Talbot University of Pittsburgh Fundamental regions in S6 for the simple quaternary G60, type I
1938 (M) External Reuben Roosevelt McDaniel Cornell University Approximation to algebraic numbers by means of periodic sequences of transformations on quadratic forms
1938 (M) External Joseph Alphonso Pierce University of Michigan A study of universe n finite populations with application to moment-function adjustments for grouped data
1941 (M) Portrait of David Blackwell David Harold Blackwell University of Illinois Some properties of Markoff chains
1942 (M) Robert Coleman Columbia University The development of informal geometry
1942 (M) Portrait of J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr Jesse Ernest Wilkins University of Chicago Multiple integral problems in parametric form in the calculus of variations
1943 (F) Portrait of Euphemia Lofton Haynes M. Euphemia Lofton Haynes Catholic University of America Determination of sets of independent conditions characterizing certain special cases of symmetric correspondences
1944 (M) External Joseph James Dennis Northwestern University Some points in the theory of positive definite J-fractions
1944 (M) External Wade Ellis University of Michigan On relations satisfied by linear operators on a three dimensional linear vector space
1944 (M) External Clarence F. Stephens University of Michigan Nonlinear difference equations analytic in a parameter
1949 (F) Evelyn Boyd Granville Yale University On laguerre series in the complex domain
1950 (F) Marjorie Lee Browne University of Michigan Studies of oneparameter subgroups of certain topological and matrix groups
1961 (F) External Georgia Caldwell Smith University of Pittsburgh Some results on the anticenter of a group
1962 (F) External Gloria Conyers Hewitt University of Washington Direct and inverse limits of abstract algebras
1965 (F) Portrait of Thyrsa Frazier Svager Thyrsa Frazier Svager Ohio State University On the product of absolutely continuous transformations of measure spaces
1966 (F) Portrait of Vivienne Malone-Mayes Vivienne Malone-Mayes University of Texas at Austin A structure problem in asymptotic analysis
1966 (F) External Shirley Mathis McBay University of Georgia The homology theory of metabelian lie algebras
1966 (F) External Eleanor Green Dawley Jones Syracuse University Abelian groups and their endomorphism rings and the quasi-endomorphism of torsion free abelian groups
1967 (F) Portrait of Christine Darden Geraldine Claudette Darden Syracuse University On direct sums of cyclic groups
1967 (F) External Annie Marie Watkins Garraway University of California, Berkeley Structure of some cocycles in analysis

Doctoral degrees 1925 to 1975

This list includes PhDs awarded to African-Americans and to African immigrants by academic institutions in the United States.

Table key
Indicates first known African-American man or woman awarded a PhD at an academic institution
Year Gender Name Awarded by Dissertation title Ref.
1925 (M) Elbert Frank Cox Cornell University The polynomial solutions of the difference equation af(x+1) + bf(x) = [Phi](x)
1928 (M) Dudley Weldon Woodard University of Pennsylvania On two-dimensional analysis situs with special reference to the Jordan Curve Theorem
1933 (M) William Schieffelin Claytor University of Pennsylvania Topological immersion of peanian continua in a spherical surface
1934 (M) Walter Richard Talbot University of Pittsburgh Fundamental regions in S6 for the simple quaternary G60, type I
1938 (M) Reubin Roosevelt McDaniel Cornell University Approximation to algebraic numbers by means of periodic sequences of transformations on quadratic forms
1938 (M) Joseph Alphonso Pierce University of Michigan A study of universe n finite populations with application to moment-function adjustments for grouped data
1941 (M) David H. Blackwell University of Illinois Some properties of Markoff chains
1942 (M) Robert Coleman Columbia University The development of informal geometry
1942 (M) Jesse Ernest Wilkins University of Chicago Multiple integral problems in parametric form in the calculus of variations
1943 (F) M. Euphemia Lofton Haynes Catholic University of America Determination of sets of independent conditions characterizing certain special cases of symmetric correspondences
1944 (M) Joseph James Dennis Northwestern University Some points in the theory of positive definite J-fractions
1944 (M) Wade Ellis University of Michigan On relations satisfied by linear operators on a three dimensional linear vector space
1944 (M) Clarence F. Stephens University of Michigan Nonlinear difference equations analytic in a parameter
1945 (M) Warren Hill Brothers University of Michigan On the solution of boundary value problems in hyperbolic differential equations
1945 (M) Jeremiah Certaine Harvard University Lattice-ordered groupoids and some related problems
1949 (F) Evelyn Boyd Granville Yale University On laguerre series in the complex domain
1950 (F) Marjorie Lee Browne University of Michigan Studies of oneparameter subgroups of certain topological and matrix groups
1951 (M) George H. Butcher University of Pennsylvania An extension of the sum theorem of dimension theory
1953 (M) Luna I. Mishoe New York University On the expansion of an arbitrary function in terms of the Eigenfunctions of a nonself adjoint differential system
1953 (M) Fred B. Wright University of Chicago Ideals in operator algebras
1954 (M) Charles Bernard Bell, Jr University of Notre Dame Structures of measure spaces
1955 (M) Vincent V. McCrae Catholic University of America On the unitary similarity of matrices
1955 (M) Abdulalim A. Shabazz Cornell University On the distribution of eigenvalues of [Integral sign]a̳-a̳a(s-t)[phi](t)dt=p[[integral sign]a̳-a̳b(s-t)[phi](t)dt+[eta][phi](s)]
1956 (M) Lloyd K. Williams University of California, Berkeley On separating transcendency bases
1957 (M) Elgy S. Johnson Catholic University of America Properties of solutions of nonlinear differential equations
1957 (M) John Quill Taylor King University of Texas A statistical analysis of the economic aspects of nineteen Protestant church-related colleges in Texas
1959 (M) Israel Everett Glover Oklahoma State University On analytic functions having as singular sets certain closed and bounded sets
1959 (M) Laurence Raymond Harper Jr University of Chicago Some properties of partially stable algebras
1960 (M) Charles Gladstone Costley University of Illinois Singular nonlinear integral equation with complex valued kernels of type N
1960 (M) Beauregard Stubblefield University of Michigan Some compact product spaces which cannot be imbedded in euclidean n-space
1961 (M) Jesse Paul Clay University of Pennsylvania Proximity and equicontinuity in transformation groups
1961 (M) Rogers Joseph Newman University of Michigan Capacity and Tchebycheff polynomials
1961 (F) Georgia Caldwell Smith University of Pittsburgh Some results on the anticenter of a group
1962 (F) Gloria Conyers Hewitt University of Washington Direct and inverse limits of abstract algebras
1962 (M) Robert Oreece Abernathy University of California, Berkeley On singular fourth order elliptic partial differential equations
1962 (M) John Henry Bennett Harvard University Truncation errors in numerical solutions of the transport equation
1962 (M) Socrates Walter Saunders University of Pittsburgh Analytic continuation by certain product-summability methods
1962 (M) Theodore Roosevelt Sykes Pennsylvania State University On a generalization of orthogonal polynomials
1963 (M) Joseph Battle University of Michigan Imbedding of graphs in orientable 2-manifolds
1963 (M) Simmie Samuel Blakney University of Illinois Lusin's theorem in metric theory
1963 (M) Earl Owen Embree University of Illinois A class of linear differential equations involving distributions
1963 (M) William Andrew McWorter Ohio State University Phi algebras
1964 (F) Mary Rodriguez Embry University of North Carolina Subspaces associated with contractions in Hilbert space
1964 (M) Alfred D. Stewart University of Texas On the Abel equation in n-dimensions, n ≥ 2
1965 (F) Thyrsa Frazier Svager Ohio State University On the product of absolutely continuous transformations of measure spaces
1965 (M) James Ashley Donaldson University of Illinois Integral representations of the extended airy integral type for the modified Bessel function
1966 (M) William Thomas Fletcher University of Idaho On the decomposition of associative algebras of prime characteristic
1966 (F) Vivienne Malone-Mayes University of Texas at Austin A structure problem in asymptotic analysis
1966 (F) Shirley Mathis McBay University of Georgia The homology theory of metabelian lie algebras
1966 (F) Eleanor Green Dawley Jones Syracuse University Abelian groups and their endomorphism rings and the quasi-endomorphism of torsion free abelian groups
1966 (M) Harvey T. Banks Purdue University Optimal control problems with delay
1966 (M) John Albert Ewell University of California, Los Angeles On the determination of sets by sets of sums of fixed order
1966 (M) Charles Edward Morris University of Illinois Normal subgroups of the sympletic group on a countably infinite dimensional vector space
1967 (F) Geraldine Claudette Darden Syracuse University On direct sums of cyclic groups
1967 (F) Annie Marie Watkins Garraway University of California, Berkeley Structure of some cocycles in analysis
1967 (M) Llayron Leon Clarkson University of Texas A theorem concerning product integrals
1967 (M) Lloyd A. Demetrius University of Chicago Structural organization in cellular systems: a mathematical approach
1967 (M) Samuel Horace Douglas Oklahoma State University Convexity lattices related to topological lattices and incidence geometries
1967 (M) Melvin Heard Purdue University Linear functional differential equation of neutral type
1967 (M) Ralph Brooks Turner Brown University Low Reynolds number flow of particulate fluids
1968 (F) M. Lovenia DeConge-Watson St. Louis University 2-normed lattices and 2-metric spaces
1968 (M) John Chukwuemeka Amazigo Harvard University Buckling under axial compression of long cylindrical shells with random axisymmetric imperfections
1968 (M) Earl Russell Barnes University of Maryland The optimal control of systems with distributed parameters
1968 (M) Milton Andrew Gordon Illinois Institute of Technology On a class of degree one algebras
1968 (M) Phillip Eugene McNeil Pennsylvania State University The structure of certain semigroups with two idempotents
1968 (M) Wilbur Lee Smith Pennsylvania State University On infinite product measures and semi-regular measures
1968 (M) Donald Frank St Mary University of Nebraska Oscillation and comparison theorems for second order linear differential equation
1968 (M) Donald Derrick Weddington University of Miami k-Spaces
1968 (M) James Harris White University of Minnesota Self-linking and the Gauss integral in higher dimensions
1969 (F) Etta Zuber Falconer Emory University Quasigroup identities invariant under isotopy
1969 (M) Raymond Lewis Johnson Rice University A priori estimates and unique continuation theorems for second order parabolic equations
1969 (M) Robert S. Smith Pennsylvania State University (Title not identified)
1969 (M) James Ernie Warner Case Western University Asymptotic properties of multivariate permutation tests with applications to signal detection
1969 (M) Scott Warner Williams Lehigh University The transfinite cardinal covering dimension
1970 (M) Japheth Hall University of Alabama On the theory of structures in sets
1970 (M) Guy Theodore Hogan Ohio State University Variations on the Hp problem for finite p-groups
1970 (M) Lonnie Williams Keith Kansas State University Nearly distribution-free tests for equal variances in two populations when the means are unknown
1970 (M) Sonde Ndubeze Nwankpa Michigan State University Generalized Sylvester Gallai configurations
1971 (F) Dolores Margaret Richard Spikes Louisiana State University Semi-valuations and groups of divisibility
1971 (M) Orville Edward Kean University of Pennsylvania Abstract horn theories
1971 (M) Nguthu John Mutio Syracuse University Frobenius groups
1971 (M) Eddie Robert Williams Columbia University The Poincaré lemma with estimates
1970 (M) Nathan Frank Simms Lehigh University Stable homotopy in Frobenius categories
1971 (M) Charles Dwight Lahr Syracuse University Approximate identities and multipliers for certain convolution measure algebras
1972 (M) Ethelbert Nwakuche Chukwu Case Western University Symmetries and identification of linear control systems
1972 (M) Oscar Henry Criner University of California, Berkeley Regularity properties of the solutions of the two dimensional Lagrangian problem and the Lagrangiah multiplier
1972 (M) Christopher Olutunde Imoru Northwestern University The Jensen-Steffensen inequality
1972 (M) Carlos Ford-Livene University of Southern California Estimation, prediction, and dynamic programming in ecology
1972 (M) Curtis Sylvester Means Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Initial value problems for a class of higher order partial differential equations which are related to the heat equation
1972 (M) Floyd Leroy Williams Washington University in St Louis Reduction of tensor products of principle series representation of complex semi-simple lie groups
1972 (M) James E. White Yale University (Algebraic topology - title not identified)
1973 (F) Evelyn E. Wilson Thornton University of Houston Generalised Vietoris-Begle theorems
1973 (M) Annas Aytch University of Pittsburgh Consistency of complex Noerland transforms
1973 (M) Garth Arnold Baker Cornell University Projection methods for boundary value problems for equations of elliptic and parabolic type with discontinuous coefficients
1973 (M) Robert Edward Bozeman Vanderbilt University Periodic solutions in the plane four-body problem of mixed circular-elliptic type
1973 (M) Lloyd Alvin Gavin Illinois Institute of Technology On some classes of FK-spaces and on summability factors
1973 (M) Seyoum Getu University of Missouri Generalizing alternative rings
1973 (M) James Ervin Ginn Texas A&M University Product estimators in sample surveys
1973 (M) Isom Harris Herron Johns Hopkins University A fluid dynamical theory for the motion of a particle undergoing centrifugation
1973 (M) Frank A. James New York University (Title not identified)
1973 (M) Manuel Keepler University of New Mexico Backward and forward equations for random evolutions
1973 (M) Clement Aynsley Water McCalla Massachusetts Institute of Technology Optimal control of linear hereditary systems with quadratic criterion
1973 (M) Michael Noel Payne University of California, Berkeley Structural stability and quadratic dynamical systems
1973 (M) Chester Cornelius Seabury Stanford University Some extension theorems for regular maps of Stein manifolds
1973 (M) Hampton Wright University of North Carolina Coefficient identities derived from symmetric function expansions
1974 (F) Elayne Arrington Idowu University of Cincinnati The p-Frattini subgroup of a finite group
1974 (F) Rada Ruth Higgins McCreadie Ohio State University On the asymptotic behavior of certain sequences
1974 (M) Roosevelt Gentry Rutgers University Compact interpolation between Banach spaces
1974 (M) Tepper L. Gill Wayne State University Tensor products of contraction semigroups on Hilbert spaces
1974 (M) Johnny Lee Houston Purdue University On the theory of fitting classes in certain locally finite groups
1974 (M) Arthur Melvin Jones University of Iowa On goodness-of-fit tests for normality
1974 (M) Nathaniel Knox University of South Carolina On the inverse semigroup coproduct of an arbitrary non-empty collection of groups
1974 (M) Kevin Ejere Osondu State University of New York, Buffalo A unified theory of extension of bins to semigroups and of semigroups to groups
1974 (M) Willie Elmer Taylor University of Houston Oscillatory properties of nonselfadjoint fourth order differential equations
1974 (M) Alton Smith Wallace University of Maryland Representation theorems for solutions of differential operator equations
1975 (F) Cheryll Suber-Gerelle Kansas State University A Markov process for predicting adult student behavior

Doctoral degrees in mathematics education to 1975

This list includes doctorates specifically in mathematics education and doctorates in education by mathematicians/mathematics educators.

Table key
First Indicates first known African-American man or woman awarded a doctorate in education at an academic institution
Year Gender Name Awarded by Dissertation title Ref.
1942 (M) Socrates Walter Saunders University of Pittsburgh Legal aspects of the education of Negroes with special emphasis on the equalization principle
1947 (F) Ethel M. Turner Columbia University Consumer mathematics in adult education
1950 (M) Caldwell Elwood Boulware Columbia University The emerging concept of mental arithmetic
1951 (M) Theodore A Love New York University The relation of achievement in mathematics to certain abilities in problem-solving
1954 (F) Angie Turner King University of Pittsburgh An analysis of early algebra textbooks used in the American secondary schools before 1900
1954 (M) Wendell Primus Jones University of Chicago The Negro press and the higher education of Negroes, 1933-1952: a study of news and opinion on higher education in the three leading Negro newspapers
195? (M) Thomas E Bonner Oklahoma State University (Title not identified)
1956 (M) Henry Madison Eldridge University of Pittsburgh A study in the variation in accomplishment and subject preference in different secondary schools
1957 (M) Raymond Jackson Pitts University of Michigan An analysis and evaluation of supplementary teaching materials found in selected secondary school textbooks
1958 (M) James Horatio Means Oklahoma State University Objectives of mathematics instruction in seven Texas colleges
1959 (M) Major Boyd Jones Cornell University Techniques, methods, procedures and provisions used in selected Maryland public secondary schools in teaching mathematics to rapid learners
1960 (F) Lillian Katie Bradley University of Texas An evaluation of the effectiveness of a collegiate general mathematics course
1961 (F) Sadie Gasaway Cornell University The effectiveness of continued testing in mathematics of freshmen of varying proficiencies at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University
1962 (F) Louise Nixon Sutton New York University Concept learning in trigonometry and analytic geometry at the college level: a comparative study of two methods of teaching trigonometry and analytic geometry at the college level
1963 (F) Grace Alele Williams University of Chicago Dynamics of education in the birth of a new nation: case study of Nigeria
1964 (F) Beryl Eleanor Hunte New York University Demonstrative geometry during the twentieth century: an account of the various sequences used in the subject matter of demonstrative geometry from 1900 to the present time
1964 (M) Ulysses Hunter Purdue University Essential cluster sets
1964 (M) Louis Clinton Marshall American University Approximately continuous transformations on compact metric spaces
1965 (M) John Arthur Jones Pennsylvania State University An intensive investigation and analysis of means for improving the mathematics programs in the colleges and universities of the United States with predominantly negro student bodies
1966 (M) Eugene William Madison University of Illinois Computable algebraic structures and non-standard arithmetic
1967 (M) Matthew William Crawford Colorado State College An analysis of the mathematics curriculum in the negro public high schools in Louisiana
1967 (M) Calvin Elijah King Ohio State University A comparative study of the effectiveness of teaching a course in remedial mathematics to college students by television and by the conventional method
1967 (M) Irvin Elmer Vance University of Michigan Geometries of the Erlanger Program
1967 (M) Marcus Harold Whitfield Oklahoma State University Theory of maxima and minima and applications
1969 (M) Boniface Iowa State University Structure of inseparable composites
1969 (M) Paul Burgette Mohr Oklahoma State University A study of Negro mathematics faculties in predominantly Negro institutions
1969 (M) William Percy Hytche Oklahoma State University A comparative analysis of four methods of instruction in mathematics
1969 (M) Benjamin Joseph Martin Purdue University On a new integral equation arising in the theory of radiative transfer
1969 (M) Richard Lionel Price Ohio State University Scholastic aptitude test in mathematics as a predictor of student selection of algebraic versus geometric approaches to problem solving
1969 (M) Washington Theophilus Taylor Oklahoma State University A cross sectional study of the modification of attitudes of selected prospective elementary school teachers toward mathematics
1969 (M) Vernon Williams Oklahoma State University A multi-predictive measure to predict success at two levels in freshman college mathematics
1970 (F) Genevieve Madeline Knight University of Maryland The effect of a sub-culturally appropriate language upon achievement in mathematical content
1970 (F) Joella Hardeman Gipson University of Illinois Teaching probability in the elementary school: an exploratory study
1970 (M) David James Hickman University of Notre Dame The Tschebyscheff polynomials for regular polygons inscribed in the unit circle of the complex plane
1970 (M) Rufus Grier Pettis Oklahoma State University An analysis of the methods being used to make provisions for outstanding high school mathematics students in North Carolina
1973 (F) Therese Hance Braithwaite University of California, Berkeley The development of a function theory in education based on a construct of a unity
1974 (F) Della Pearl Domonek Bell University of Texas Some characteristics of high- and low- achieving seventh grade Black students in mathematics
1975 (M) Freeman Alphonsa Hrabowski III University of Illinois A comparison of the graduate academic performance of black students who graduated from predominantly black colleges and from predominantly white colleges

Books and articles about African-American mathematicians

This list includes books and dissertations published about individual African-Americans in mathematics, and studies, biographical anthologies or histories dedicated to African-Americans in mathematics. (This list is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.)

Individuals

  • Benjamin Banneker:
    • Bedini, Silvio A (1999). The life of Benjamin Banneker: the first African-American man of science. Maryland Historical Society.
    • Hinman, Bonnie (2000). Benjamin Banneker: American Mathematician and Astronomer (Colonial Leaders).
  • David Blackwell:
    • Blackwell, David; Wilmot, Nadine (2003). An oral history with David Blackwell. Bancroft Library.
    • Black, Robert (2019). David Blackwell and the Deadliest Duel. Royal Fireworks Press.
  • Joseph James Dennis:
    • Williams, Sherese LaTrelle (2016). To Humbly Serve: Joseph James Dennis and His Contributions to Clark College. Clark Atlanta University.
  • Marjorie Kimbrough
    • Kimbrouogh, Marjorie (1991). Accept no limitations: a black woman encounters corporate America. Abingdon Press.
  • Shirley Mathis McBay:
    • Verheyden-Hilliard, Mary Ellen (1985). Mathematician and Administrator, Shirley Mathis McBay. Equity Institute.
  • J. Ernest Wilkins Jr.:
    • Nkwanta, Asamoah; Barber, Janet E. (2018). "Episodes in the Life of a Genius: J. Ernest Wilkins Jr." Notices of the American Mathematical Society. Volume 65, Number 2.

Anthologies and studies

Hidden Figures Premiere (NHQ201612010035)
Katherine Johnson watching the Hidden Figures Premiere in 2016
  • Borum, Viveka; Hilton, Adriel Adon; Walker, Erica (2016). The Role of Black Colleges in the Development of Mathematicians. Journal of Research Initiatives.
  • Carlson, Cob; Parks, Yolanda; et al. (1996). Breakthrough: profiles of scientists of color. Working with Numbers. Blackside.
  • Dean, Nathaniel (ed) (1997). African Americans in mathematics: DIMACS workshop, June 26–28, 1996. American Mathematical Society.
  • Farmer, Vernon L; Shepherd-Wynn, Evelyn (2012). Voices of historical and contemporary Black American pioneers.
  • Harmon, Marylen; Guertler, Sherry (1994). Visions of a dream: history makers: contributions of Africans and African Americans in science and mathematics. M.E. Harmon.
  • Houston, Johnny L (2000). The History of the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM): The First Thirty (30) Years, 1969–1999. NAM.
  • Kenschaft, Patricia Clark (2005). Change is possible: Stories of women and minorities in mathematics.
  • Lang, Mozell P. Contributions of African American scientists and mathematicians. Harcourt School Publishers.
  • Newell, Victoria; Gipson, Joella; Rich, Waldo L.; Stubblefield, B (1980). Black Mathematicians and Their Works.
  • Paul, Richard; Moss, Steven (2015). We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program. University of Texas Press.
  • Shetterly, Margot Lee (2016). Hidden Figures: The American dream and the untold story of the black women mathematicians who helped win the space race.
  • Walker, Erica N (2014). Beyond Banneker: Black mathematicians and the path to excellence.
  • Williams, Lisa D (2000). The trials, tribulations, and triumphs of black faculty in the math and science pipeline: a life history approach (Dissertation). University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
  • Williams, Talithia M (2018). Power in numbers: The rebel women of mathematics. Race Point Publishing.

For young people

  • Becker, Helaine; Phumiruk, Dow (2018). Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13. Henry Holt and co.
  • Pinkney, Andrea Davis (1998). Dear Benjamin Banneker.
  • Schwartz, Heather E (2017). NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson. Lerner Publications.
  • Shetterly, Margot Lee; Conkling, Winifred; Freeman, Laura (2018). Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race. HarperCollins.

List of Wikipedia articles

This list includes Wikipedia articles for people from the African diaspora who have postgraduate degrees in mathematics or statistics, have worked in mathematics, or are known for mathematical accomplishments in the United States (African-Americans). The list is grouped by the time the person's first degree in mathematics was awarded, or when they began their work in mathematics. Individuals are listed alphabetically within time periods. PhDs in mathematics education are included.

Before 1900

Kelly Miller
Kelly Miller
Dorothy Johnson Vaughan
Dorothy Johnson Vaughan
Mary Jackson working 2 - Restoration
Mary Jackson, at NASA in 1980
Abdulalim Shabazz
Abdulalim Shabazz in 1949
Vivienne Malone-Mayes
Vivienne Malone-Mayes
Christine Darden
Christine Darden, wind tunnel control room, NASA
Dr Raymond L Johnson
Raymond L. Johnson
Dr. Mack s Photo
Iris M. Mack
ProfMasseyimage
William A. Massey
CAARMS lunch
CAARMS meeting, Berkeley, 1995
John Urschel
John Urschel

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

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