Edward Alexander Bouchet: The First African American to Earn a PhD from an American University

Edward Alexander Bouchet: The First African American to Earn a PhD from an American University

The remarkable story of Edward Alexander Bouchet, Yale College class of 1874, the first African-American to graduate from Yale College. Later, researchers found at least three other black men had graduated earlier. "Whether Bouchet was the first, second, third, or fourth African American to attend Yale, he was a brilliant student. After graduating, he continued at Yale in the newly created PhD program in physics. When he finished his dissertation (“Measuring Refractive Indices”) in 1876 after just two years of graduate study, Bouchet was one of the first six people in the United States to receive a doctorate in physics and the first African American to earn such a degree (in any field) from an American university."


National Society of Black Scientists. Edward Bouchet: The First African-American Doctorate. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific Publishing Company, 2002.
Articles
Branch, Mark Alden. “Before Green and Bouchet, Another African American Yale Grad. Maybe.” Yale Alumni Magazine - Online, March 7, 2014. Link.
Kaminer, Ariel. “Discovery Leads Yale to Revise a Chapter of Its Black History.” New York Times, February 28, 2014. Link.
Reeder, Garry L. “The History of Blacks at Yale University.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 26 (Winter, -2000 1999): 125–26.
Bass, Carole. “Yale College’s First Black Grad: It’s Not Who You Think.” Yale Alumni Magazine - Online, February 28, 2014. Link.

Andy Piascik

ConnecticutHistory.org, a project of Connecticut Humanities!

ConnecticutHistory.org, a project of Connecticut Humanities!

12 February 2020