her gifts. She graduated from a segregated high school in 1948 and went on to attend @FISK1866, where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees. She worked at @PaulQuinnTigers, an HBCU, before applying to @Baylor, which rejected her on the basis of her race. Instead, she 2/8
attended the University of Texas, which had been desegregated by Federal law but was still unwelcoming and even hostile. She faced indignities from professors, who wouldn't enroll a Black student; and fellow students, who held meetings in segregated off-campus businesses to 3/8
exclude her. She persevered despite the many obstacles, earning her PhD in 1966, only the 5th mathematics PhD earned by a Black woman. She was an adamant supporter of the Civil Rights movement. A professor is reported to have said that if all Black Americans were diligent 4/8
students like her, there would be no race problem in America. She replied that if not for the work of those protestors, he would never have met her at all--that "if you want to have bright people in your class, you have to meet them first." Her dissertation was on functional 5/8
analysis, especially the growth properties of ranges of nonlinear operators. In an act of forgiveness and grace that is humbling to ponder, she took a position at @Baylor, the same school that had refused to admit her due to her race. She was their first Black faculty member. 6/8
There she continued her research as a full-time professor, earning federal grants to support her research and Faculty Member of the Year in 1971. She served on the board of the National Assoc. of Mathematics, was active in her local church, where she played the organ, and 7/8
directed the Youth Choir. She was also on the board of directors for several charities, including Goodwill Industries. She died of a heart attack at age 63, survived by one daughter. 8/8 
