Dr. William S. Lofton (1862-1919)

Today marks the death of Dr. William S. Lofton (1862-1919), a prominent African-American layman and dentist in Washington, D.C. As a young man he emigrated to the District from Batesville, Arkansas. In 1886 he graduated from Spencerian Business College and two years later from Howard University’s Dental College. His dental practice, located on M Street in the District of Columbia, thrived for thirty years. In addition he was a well known leader in the African-American community and a Civil Rights activist. As a teen he had converted to Catholicism. He was the President of the Fifth Black Catholic Congress (1894), where he said: “We hope to hail the day when the American people, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, and the laity shall rise up in their might and stamp out the prejudice which is today destroying the life blood of this county.” His daughter Euphemia Lofton Haynes (1890-1980) was the first African-American to earn a doctorate in Mathematics, from Catholic University in 1943.