Evelyn Boyd Granville, the second African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics, turns 90 today (May 1, 2014).
Although Granville was one of the only black students at both Smith and Yale, she says she never felt discriminated against while she was there. “I never had a problem with any professors or fellow students, as far as race was concerned,” she says. “I guess if someone didn’t want to be around me, they just didn’t come around.” When she was in school, she didn’t think of herself as a trailblazer. “I remember one day my sister said to me, ‘Did you know you were one of the first black women to get a Ph.D. in math?’” she says. “It never occurred to me to be a ‘first.’ I just wanted to major in mathematics.”
Read the full post at Roots of Unity.
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