About Mary

The namesake for the Mary Jane’s Legacy Project is Mary Jane Patterson, who is considered to be the first African American woman to earn a bachelor’s degree. She was born in North Carolina in 1840. While much of her early life is unknown, Mary was widely believed to have been born into enslavement. Her family arrived in Ohio sometime in the 1850’s.

At the age of 17, Mary began preparatory courses at Oberlin College. Oberlin was the first predominately White college in the United States to admit Black men, and later, the first to admit women of all races. In 1862, Mary earned a B.A. in education, becoming the first Black woman to earn the degree in the United States. She graduated with high honors.

Mary continued her postbaccalaureate life as a devoted educator. Her career took her across the eastern United States, where she taught and led some of the most well-known educational institutions for Black Americans. Early on, she taught at the Institute of Colored Youth, which is now Cheney University of Pennsylvania, the first Historically Black College in the US. Mary’s last known job as an educator was at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth (now Paul Laurence Dunbar High School) in Washington D.C., which was the first public high school for Black students in the country. Mary served as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal during her time there.

In her later years, Mary spent time advocating for Black women’s rights. In 1892, she became a founding member of the Colored Woman’s League of Washington, D.C. Mary Jane Patterson died in September 1894. She was 54 years old.

Sources:

Blakemore, E. (2017, May 23). How the daughter of a slave became the first African-American woman to earn a bachelor’s degree. Time. https://time.com/4788672/mary-jane-patterson-history/
Brooks, R. (2018). Looking to foremothers for strength: A brief biography of the Colored Woman’s League. Women’s Studies 47(6), 609-616. https://www.doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2018.1492407
Garner, C. (2010, December 03). Mary Jane Patterson (1840-1894). BlackPast. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/patterson-mary-jane-1840-1894/
Rixon, K. (2010, December 07). Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (1870- ). BlackPast. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/paul-laurence-dunbar-high-school-1870/