Decolonize Black History Month

Day 13: Mary Jane Patterson

In 1862 Mary Jane Patterson became the first Black woman in the United States to earn a bachelor’s degree. She received this degree from Oberlin College. Lucy Stanton Day Sessions, another Oberlin alum, was the first black woman to graduate from college in 1850 but at the time women were encouraged into a “Literary Course program” that did not culminate with a bachelor’s degree. When Patterson came to Oberlin she was able to enroll in the “gentlemen’s course” of classical studies which led to a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Patterson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1840. After her time at Oberlin she worked as a teacher in Ohio and later moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Patterson spent five years in Philadelphia at the Institute for Colored Youth, now the Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. In 1869 she moved to Washington, DC to work at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, the first public high school in the city. Patterson served as principal of Preparatory High from 1871 until 1884. She spent one year as assistant principal when Richard T. Greener, the first Black Harvard graduate, took her position. She continued to teach at the school until she died in 1894.

In addition to her commitment to education, Patterson was also an activist for women’s rights. She helped found the DC chapter of the Colored Women’s League. She also volunteered time and money to charities such as the Home for the Aged and Infirm Colored People. Her home at 1532 15th Street Northwest is part of DC’s African American Heritage Trail (Trail 3: Logan Circle)

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