The first African American to receive a doctoral degree in the
United States was a scientist. Dr. Edward Alexander Bouchet (1852-1918)
was a native of New Haven, Connecticut, who graduated from Yale
University’s undergraduate school in 1874, and completed his Ph.D. in
physics there in 1876.
Several years after graduation, Bouchet was elected into Phi Beta
Kappa, becoming one of the honor society’s first Black members. He
spent most of his career sharing his knowledge with other African
Americans as a secondary school science educator.
In the fifty-six years following Boucher’s graduation, only twelve other African Americans would earn Ph.D.s in the sciences.
Like most racial disparities in the U.S., the dearth of
credentialed African American scientists is rooted in the nation’s
history of racial discrimination. It is difficult to fully comprehend
why the current scarcity exists without briefly reviewing the history
of African Americans in the sciences.
Early African American scientists have included people like
Benjamin Banneker, whose almanac was heralded by Thomas Jefferson;
George Washington Carver, the renowned biochemist; Garrett A. Morgan,
inventor of the stoplight and gas mask; and Granville T. Woods, the
electrical engineer who invented the third rail upon which many subway
systems run. These scientists, had no doctoral training
The existence of credentialed African American scientists in any
significant number is largely a twentieth-century phenomenon. In the
first half of the century, however, even those who did achieve doctoral
degrees often found it difficult to obtain jobs within White-dominated
scientific institutions because of racial discrimination.
Overcoming Early Resistance
