page_title: Merze Tate
section_title: Higher education and career
hierarchical_section_title: Merze Tate / Higher education and career
caption_attribution_description: 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 Questions? http://asklib.schlesinger.radcliffe.edu/index.php
context_page_description: Vernie Merze Tate was a professor, scholar and expert on United States diplomacy. She was the first African-American graduate of Western Michigan Teachers College, first African-American woman to attend the University of Oxford, first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in government and international relations from Harvard University, as well as one of the first two female members to join the Department of History at Howard University.
context_section_description: After completed the teacher's training program at Western Michigan Teacher's College, Tate taught at an elementary school in Cass County. During this time she continued her education by taking correspondence courses and returned to Western Michigan to complete her Bachelor of Arts degree in three years  while maintaining the highest grade average of her classmates. In 1927, she became the first African-American to earn a bachelor's degree from the institution. She was also elected to the national social science honor society, Phi Gamma Mu.
  Despite her excellent academic career, Tate could not find employment in the state.  At that time, Michigan would not hire African American teachers in its secondary schools.  Tate received assistance from administrators at Western Michigan and was able to find a teaching position at Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. Whilst teaching, Tate took a part-time master's degree at Columbia. In 1932, she won an Alpha Kappa Alpha scholarship to study at Oxford University where she took a B.Litt. in International Relations in 1935. She matriculated as a Home Student of St Anne's College, and was the first African-American woman member of Oxford University. Subsequently, she gained a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
  In 1936, she became the history and social science department chairman at Bennett College for women, also in North Carolina, where she taught four years. She also spent a year at what is now Morgan State University, where she taught political science and was dean of women, before joining the faculty of Howard University.
  Later in her life, she was a world traveler and international correspondent for an African-American publication. She visited the White House annually (including meetings with Eleanor Roosevelt) and attended the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She never married or had children.
caption: Merze Tate in 1982
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