English: Biography: Merze Tate, a specialist in international and diplomatic history, and in armaments and their limitations, was a professor of history at Howard University from 1942 to 1977. Impelled by the Homestead Act of 1872, her grandparents on both sides migrated from Ohio to Michigan, where Black families were beginning to settle. She was born in Blanchard, Mich., the second of three children of Myrtle K. Lett and Charles E. Tate. She attended county schools. After the tenth grade, she transferred to Battle Creek High School, graduating in 1923. She received a teacher's diploma from Western Michigan Teachers College in 1924 and taught for one year in a Cass County elementary School. In 1927, she was the first Black person to earn a bachelor's degree from Western Michigan College, completing a four-year program in three years. Since Michigan did not employ "colored" teachers in its secondary schools, the dean, registrar, and president of the college loaned her money to seek employment elsewhere. She taught at Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, 1927-32, and studied summers at Teachers' College, Columbia University, receiving a master's degree in 1930. She entered Oxford University on an AKA Foreign Fellowship and in 1935 was the first Black person to earn a bachelor of literature degree. She also studied at Berlin University and the Geneva School of International Studies. She was dean of women and taught history at Barber-Scotia College in North Carolina, 1935-36, then accepted a position at Bennett College, where she taught history and political science for five years. In 1941 Radcliffe College awarded her a Ph.D. Dr. Tate was dean of women and taught political science at Morgan State University, 1941-42, when she was asked to come to Howard University as a professor of history. She spent the 1950-51 academic year in India as a Fulbright lecturer. She has been a member of the Screening Committee of the Institute of International Education for Fulbright awards to the United Kingdom; international advisor to the National Urban League; vice-president of the Radcliffe Club of Washington, D.C., 1961- 66; and on the advisory board of the DuBois Institute, Harvard University. She has done cinematography for several organizations, and in 1962 produced a film for the State Department; she also holds U.S. patents for two household appliances. She has been the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, awards, and citations, including the Rosenwald Fellowship, the National Urban League Achievement Award in 1948, the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association Graduate Chapter Medal for Distinguished Professional Service in 1953, the Radcliffe College Alumnae Achievement Award in 1979, and in 1981 the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick
Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Collection: Black Women Oral History Project
Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp

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