Eva

Thanks for stopping by and taking time out of your day to read my post. My intent is to put a smile on your face. Hopefully you’ll go away with some information you may have forgotten about or did not know. Now sit back and enjoy the post for the day.

Eva Beatrice Dykes was born in Washington D.C. back in 1893 to James and Martha. She attended M. Street High School where she graduated summa cum laude from Howard University with a B.A. in 1914. She went on and attended Radcliffe College graduating magna cum laude with a second B.A. in 1917 and a MA. In 1918. In 1921 she received a PhD from Radcliffe. She taught English for 15 years at Howard University. She wrote several publications in which I’ll get to in a minute. In 1920 she also joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church and in 1944 she joined the faculty of then then small and unaccredited Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama.

Now for the good stuff and here we go. In the history of the United States she was the first black American woman to fulfill the requirements for a doctoral degree and the third to be awarded a PhD. Remember I told you about her publications well her publications include Reading from Negro Authors for Schools and Colleges, co-authored with Lorenzo Dow turner and Otella Cromwell The Negro in English Romantic Thought; Or a Study in Sympathy for the Oppressed.  One last thing she was also the first staff member at Oakwood to hold a doctoral qualification which helped the college to gain accreditation. She died in Huntsville in 1986 at 93.