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.
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 the 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.
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 debuts 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.
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.
Doctoral degrees 1925 to 1975.
This list includes PhDs awarded to African-Americans and to African immigrants by academic institutions in the United States.
Doctoral degrees in mathematics education to 1975.
This list includes doctorates specifically in mathematics education and doctorates in education by mathematicians/mathematics educators.
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.)"
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.
References.
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