Dr. Euphemia Lofton-Haynes (1891-1980)

Today marks the death of Dr. Euphemia Lofton Haynes, the first African-American Woman to earn a Ph. D. in Mathematics. The daughter of Dr. William S. Lofton, a prominent lay Catholic, she grew up in Washington, D.C. In 1914 she graduated from Smith College. In 1917, she married Harold Appo Haynes who later became a principal and deputy superintendent in charge of Washington’s schools for African-Americans. She received a masters degree from the University of Chicago in 1930, and a doctorate in Mathematics from The Catholic University of America in 1943.

Dr. Haynes taught in Washington’s public schools for forty-seven years. She was the first woman to chair the D.C. School Board. She also taught at the District of Columbia Teachers College, Miners Teacher’s College, and Howard University. She served in numerous organizations, including the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, the Catholic Interracial Council of Washington, the Urban League, the NAACP, and the American Association of University Women.

In 1959 she was awarded the Papal Medal, Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice. Upon her death in 1980, she bequeathed $700,000 to Catholic University in a trust fund established to support a professorial chair and student loan fund in the School of Education. Thus, there is a scholarship fund and a education department chair named in her honor at Catholic University.