Euphemia Haynes

Euphemia Haynes (born September 11, 1890 in Washington, DC ; † May 25, 1980 in ibid.) Was an American mathematician and university professor . She was the first African American woman to receive a PhD in mathematics from the Catholic University of America in 1943 .

life and work

Haynes was born Martha Euphemia Lofton as the first child and only daughter of the dentists Willian Lofton and Lavinia Day Lofton. In 1907 she graduated from M Street High School, which was one of the first high schools for African Americans in the United States. In 1909 she graduated with honors from the Washington Minor Normal School, which was founded in Washington in 1851 to educate African Americans. In 1914, she earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Smith College . In 1917 she married Harold Appo Haynes, who received his doctorate in education from New York University in 1946. She studied math and education at the University of Chicago and earned a master's degree in education in 1930 . In 1930 she became professor of mathematics at Miner Teachers College, where she founded the mathematics department and served as chair of the department of mathematics and business education (in 1955, the Minor Teachers College and Wilson Teachers College merged to form the District of Columbia Teachers College). In 1943 she was the first African-American woman to receive her doctorate in mathematics from the Catholic University of America under Aubrey Edward Landrey with the dissertation: Determination of Sets of Independent Conditions Characterizing Certain Special Cases of Symmetric Correspondences. She remained the head of the mathematics department until her retirement in 1959. By the time she retired, the college had become the District of Columbia Teachers College. In 1960 she joined the Education Committee of the District of Columbia and became its president in 1966 to further combat segregation. From July 1966 to July 1967 she was the first woman to preside over the District of Columbia School Board and play a pivotal role in integrating the District of Columbia public schools. After her death, she donated $ 700,000 to the Catholic University of America, which established the Euphemia Lofton Haynes Chair in the Department of Education and supported a student loan fund at the School of Education. In 2004 the EL Haynes Charter Public School in Washington, DC was named after her.

In addition to her academic work, she was also President of the Catholic Interracial Council of the District of Columbia and President of the Washington Archdiocesan Council on Catholic Women. She was first vice-president of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, Chair of the Advisory Council of Fides Neighborhood House, Member of the Committee on International Social Welfare, Member of the Executive Committee of the National Assembly for Social Welfare, Secretary and Member of the Executive Committee of the DC Health and Welfare Council, in the local and national committees of the United Service Organization, member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Catholic Interracial Council of Washington, the Urban League, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and the American Association of University Women. 1959 gave her Pope John XXIII. the papal honorary award Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice .

Publications (selection)

1930: The Historical Development of Tests in Elementary and Secondary Mathematics. University of Chicago, Department of Education.
1943: Determination of Sets of Independent Conditions Characterizing Certain Special Cases of Symmetric Correspondences. Catholic University of America Press.

literature

A. Green, J. LaDuke: Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD's, American Mathematical Society, Providence RI, 2009.
Euphemia Lofton Haynes Biography, Mathematician (1890-1980), A&E Television Networks (April 2, 2014). biography.com
K. Feil, Obituary: Euphemia Lofton Haynes, The Washington Post (August 1, 1980).
Haynes-Lofton Family, American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives, The Catholic University of America.
SW Williams: Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes, first African American woman mathematician, Black Women in Mathematics, Mathematics Department, The State University of New York at Buffalo.
MJ Bailey, Emilie Norton Martin, in American women in science: prior to 1950 American women scientists: a biographical dictionary (ABC-Clio, Denver, Colorado, 1994), 236-237.
Emilie Norton Martin, Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin (April 1936), 31.
J. Green and J. LaDuke, Emilie Norton Martin, in Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD's (American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 2009), 235-236.
PC Kenschaft, The students of Charlotte Agnas Scott, Mathematics in College (1982), 16-20.
MB Ogilvie and J Harvey (eds), Emilie Norton Martin, in The biographical dictionary of women in science LZ: pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century (Taylor & Francis, New York, 2000), 848.
Woman's Who's Who of America: A biographical dictionary of contemporary women of the United States and Canada, 1914–1915. John William Leonard, Editor, American Commonwealth Co., 1914.
Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin, April 1936, p31.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Haynes, Euphemia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lofton Haynes, Martha Euphemia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American mathematician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH	September 11, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH	Washington, DC
DATE OF DEATH	May 25, 1980
Place of death	Washington, DC