By: ALISHA VASQUEZ
Staff Writer
Marjorie Lee Browne was a mathematical educator. She was born in Memphis Tennessee on September 9, 1914. “She was one of the first African-American women to receive a Ph.D.”. I thought that was very interesting because I know many women do not get recognized for all their work. Browne faced prejudice growing up being African American and by being a woman. But the reason she was significant is that she was an educator, and she was a very determined scholar. That is very disappointing because I think everyone should get an equal opportunity. Her mother died when she was young so her dad remarried. At the time her dad had finished two years of college; which was a massive accomplishment for African American men at the time. In high school, she was known as a gifted math student. In college, she did struggle with depression, and she could not continue to afford Howard University so she got her B.S. degree. So then she taught at Gilbert Academy (only for a year). Then she returned to college to get her Masters (in mathematics) degree at the University of Michigan. By the year 1949, she met all requirements to get her Ph.D. and she was the second African American woman to receive that honor. She also joined “the faculty of mathematics at North Carolina Central University, then called North Carolina College, where she stayed until her retirement in 1979”. She worked extremely hard to get to the places she wanted to go. And for 25 years she was the only person who had a Ph.D. in mathematics.
