Black History Month – Part 4

Black Women in America

This is our final week in our celebration of Black History Month. I hope that these few accounts of remarkable black women who were the first to earn PhD’s have encouraged you to seek out other stories of the many thousands of courageous, inventive, successful, God-honoring, black women who have made a difference for probably hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives. 

In spite of the prejudice and other challenges they faced many black women rose above the difficulties and went on to do great things for God, society, and themselves. The first week in Black History Month we honored a very courageous woman, Eva Beatrice Dykes for being the first black woman in America to complete the requirements for a PhD. Her degree was in English Philology, and she received her degree at her commencement on June 22, 1921. Last week we looked at the story of the first woman to be awarded a PhD at commencement. Georgiana Rose Simpson received a PhD in German Philology on June 14, 1921 – just over 100 years ago. Last week we looked at the story of the second black woman to receive a PhD – Sadie T. M. Alexander, who received her PhD in economics on June 15, 1921. 

All of these amazing women accomplished more than just their PhD’s. They all served in their communities and in their churches resulting in changes for the better for countless people in American culture. This week’s story is about another great woman who was active in many areas – Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes – the first black woman to receive a PhD in mathematics (1943). 

Euphemia Lofton Haynes (1890-1980)

Euphemia spoke of her faith, “which taught her that everyone ‘has a dignity that must be preserved.’

Though she was born Martha Euphemia Lofton, Euphemia did not often use her first name. She was born to Dr. William S. Lofton who was a prominent dentist in Washington D.C. and Lavinia Day Lofton who was active in the Roman Catholic Church as Euphemia would be later. Euphemia graduated from M Street High School in 1907, where she was valedictorian. She went on to graduate from the Miner Normal School in 1909. She began teaching and then enrolled in Smith College. In 1914 she received a bachelor-of-arts degree with a major in mathematics and a minor in psychology. 

In 1917, Euphemia married her friend since her teenage years, Harold Appo Haynes. Harold earned an electrical engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania and then a master’s in education from the University of Chicago. He went on to earn a doctorate in education from New York University in 1946. He taught at Howard University and then in the DC public schools. He and Euphemia would share a lifetime of working in the public schools while trying to improve the situation for black students. 

Euphemia earned a master’s degree in education from Chicago in 1930. Her thesis was “The Historical Development of Tests in elementary and Secondary Mathematics.” She traced the development of standardized testing from 1900 to 1930. She noted the problems with the variations in the scores and how educators handled those differences. Later, as we will see below, she would return to this research as she dealt with her concern that there was a tendency to use these scores to “track” students. What this means is that the educators were classifying students instead of just tracking their progress in learning. 

In 1943 Euphemia earned her doctorate in mathematics from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC., thus becoming the first black American woman to earn a PhD. In mathematics. The title of her dissertation was “The Determination of Sets of Independent Conditions Characterizing Certain Special Cases of Symmetric Correspondences”. Her dissertation advisor, Dr. Aubrey Landry, was a leading advisor for women. The title of her dissertation which is very technical does not convey the love for the elegance of mathematics that Euphemia had come to appreciate. She also tried to convince other math teachers that they should not just be teaching adding and subtracting but trying to impart to students the real beauty of mathematics as ideas, concepts, and reflections. 

Euphemia said in a 1945 address, “’Mathematics–Symbolic Logic,’ given to junior high and high school mathematics teachers, Haynes eloquently described the full beauty of mathematics framed with logic and the need for teachers to convey this understanding. She stressed the need to devote significant time for observation and reflection to establish truth rather than repetition to cement in facts. She stated that if mathematics was not taught correctly, its true nature would not be seen: ‘Mathematics is no more the art of reckoning and computation than architecture is the art of making bricks, no more than painting is the art of mixing colors.’”^[1]

After graduating with her doctorate Euphemia taught in public schools in Washington DC. She taught at all levels – elementary school, high school, and she was a professor of mathematics at Miner Teachers College where she established the mathematics department. She taught at the District of Columbia Teachers College where she served as the chair of the Division of Mathematics and Business Education. She occasionally taught part-time at Howard University. After her retirement in 1959 she was the head of the city’s Board of Education where she and Harold both worked to integrate the schools in Washington DC.

Euphemia lived her life based on her ideals. She believed that people should fill themselves with knowledge and then give of themselves in service to the community. She was active in many community organizations. She served as first vice president of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women. She chaired the Advisory Board of Fides Neighborhood House, on the Committee of International Social Welfare, on the Executive Committee of the National Social Welfare Assembly, as secretary and member of the Executive Committee of the DC Health and Welfare Council. 

Euphemia was on the local and national committees of the United Service Organization, and as a member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Co-founder of Catholic Interracial Council of the District of Columbia, the Urban League, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, League of Women Voters, and the American Association of University Women. In 1966 she became the president of the District of Columbia Board of Education where she continued to fight racial segregation.

For 47 years, Euphemia and Harold were advocates for justice in the public schools in the DC area. They were outspoken critics of the segregation in the public schools in Washington DC. As I alluded to earlier, Euphemia thought that the way the testing was “tracking” students was unfair to black or any underprivileged student. Students were placed in academic or vocational programs based on these tests. The students then had little or no opportunity to move into a different track. Thanks to the efforts of Euphemia the track system was eventually replaced with a system that met the needs of all students, allowing them to have more of a choice in their own education.

Euphemia was active in many Catholic organizations and devoted much of her time to them after her retirement. She was president of the Washington Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women from 1964-1966. She served on the board of Catholic Charities. Euphemia spoke of her faith, “which taught her that everyone ‘has a dignity that must be preserved.’ She spoke of the difficulty of achieving goals, but also spoke of the inner strength that her faith gave her: ‘…consolation in sorrow…darkness into light…replace disappointment and affliction by peace; fear and hysteria by courage and hope’.”^[2]  In 1959 she received the Papal medal, “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifex” for her work in church and community. 

Euphemia died on July 25, 1980, at the age of 89 in Washington DC. Her beloved Harold had died two years earlier. They did not have children. They bequeathed $700,000 from their estate to the Catholic University of America. The university used the money to endow a chair named in her honor and establish a student loan fund in the education department. 

The Euphemia Lofton Haynes Award was established in 2018. It is given to a junior mathematics major who has demonstrated excellence and promise in his/her study of mathematics.

^[1] From an article in the journal of the American Mathematical Society, Euphemia Lofton Haynes: Bringing Education Closer to the “Goal of Perfection” by Susan E. Kelly, Carly Shinners, Katherine Zoroufy, October 2017, pages 995-1003

^[2] Ibid, p. 1002