Black Firsts at The Ohio State University

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First Black Male Student Enrolled:

Fred D. Patterson, 1889-1892 (Also, first Black Varsity Football player - 1891, 1892, & 1893 teams).

First Black Female Student Enrolled:

First Black Homecoming Queen:

Marlene Owens, 1960

First Black Drum Major, OSU Marching Band:

Dwight Hudson, 1977 - 1979

First Black Male Graduate:

Sherman Hamlin Guss, BA, Liberal Arts 1892

First Black Female Graduate:

Jessie Frances Stephens (Married name: Glover), BA, 1905

First Black Male Master's Degree Recipient:

Alonzo Jessie Bowling, MA, 1908
(There was thought to be an earlier Master's recipient in 1897)

First Black Female Master's Degree Recipient:

Aletha Hebron Washington, MA 1925 (See also First Female Doctorate)

First Black Male Doctorate Degree Recipient:

General Lamar Harrison, Ph.D., 1936

First Black Female Doctorate Degree Recipient:

Aletha Hebron Washington, Ph.D., 1928 (See also First Female Master's)

First Black Male M.D. from OSU:

From the OSU College of Medicine:
Clarence Alphonso Lindsay, Rudolph Finley, & Charles Robert Lewis, 1916

From Starling Loving (predecessor to the OSU College of Medicine):
William Frederick Ebert, 1893

First Black Female M.D. from OSU:

Clotilde Dent Bowen, 1947 (Also, the first Black Female Physician in the U.S. Army and the first Black Female to attain the rank of Colonel.)

First Black Male to Graduate from OSU's College of Law:

Dr. Leon A. Ransom,
Law Degree with Honors
(Phi Beta Kappa, as well as being one of the legendary
"Laurel Wreath Holders" of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity),
J.D., 1927

First Black Female to Graduate from OSU's College of Law:

First Black Female to earn a Ph.D. in Bacteriology:

Ruth Ella Moore, 1933

First Black Fraternity:

Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc., 1911

First Black Sorority:

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., 1919

First Black Teacher:

George Carter (Doctoral student in Math & Physics - took over an algebra class in his professor's absence in 1938.)

First Black Office Staff Person:

Ruth Harrison , Secretary, Political Science Department, 1949

First Black Male Tenured Faculty Member:

George David Boston, Asst. Prof. of Anatomy, 1957

First Black Female Tenured Faculty Member:

Alvia Bozeman, Asst. Prof., College of Education, 1960

First Black Male Full Professor:

First Black Female Full Professor:

First Black Member of the Board of Trustees:

Peter H. Clark, 1884

First Black Female Librarian:

Jane Gatliff, 1953

First Black Male Librarian:

Black OSU Graduates of Distinction

Notable Black Varsity Football Player who confronted the colour barrier & probably the first to do so since Fred Patterson:

William Bell c.1930's.

First Black American Astronaut:

Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. , Ph.D in Chemistry, 1965

First Black Female Physician in the U.S. Army and the first Black Female to attain the rank of Colonel, first Black Female M.D. from OSU:

Clotilde Dent Bowen, M.D. 1947.

First Black Postmaster to head a postal unit in a major city:

Leslie N. Shaw, 1922 - 1985,  appointed Postmaster, Los Angeles, California in 1963.

First Black recipient of the James E. Sullivan Memorial Trophy for the top amature athlete in the United States:

Malvin Greston "Mal" Whitfield, 1954.

Distinguished Civil Rights Attorney:

Dr. Leon A. Ransom, (6 Aug. 1899 - 25 Aug. 1954) was instrumental in the fight to attain equality in education and before the law. Professor at Howard University School of Law (where he mentored Thurgood Marshall), member of the NAACP legal team in the 1930's, argued successfully before the Supreme Court against the constitutionality of so-called "sunrise confessions" (extracted through sleep depravation and mental duress) in Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 227 (1940), and was a major contributor to the legal team which argued against segregation in public schools in the case of Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, 347 U. S. 483 (1954) & 349 U.S. 294 (1955).

First Black Appointee to the United States Court of Military Appeals:

Robert Morton Duncan, 1971 (Chief Justice in 1974).

First Black Woman to chair the United States Federal Labor Relations Authority:

Barbara J. Mahone, 1983.

Only Person to win two Heisman Trophies:

Archie Griffin, 1974 & 1975.

Winner of 4 Gold Medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics:

Jesse Owens.

Hero of Microbiology:

Ruth Ella Moore received a Bachelor of Science in 1926, a Master of Arts in 1927 and a Ph.D. in Bacteriology in 1933, all from Ohio State University becoming the first Black female to earn a Ph.D. in Bacteriology. Dr. Moore served as the Head of the Department of Bacteriology at Howard University Medical College, from 1947 to 1958.  Dr. Moore served as a part-time professor at Howard University from 1971 until her retirement. Professor Moore's area of research focused on blood grouping and enteriobacteriaceae.  She is one of several scientists featured on a poster from the American Society for Microbiology called "Heroes of Microbiology."

A (very) Brief History of the Organized Black OSU Campus

The Black Student Union (1968) was the first Black student organization to develop as a response to University policies regarding minority students, and began protests in an effort to bring the University into a position that was more accommodating to the largely here-to-fore ignored needs of minority students.  By 1970, the BSU was no longer functioning, but was replaced by Afro-Am in January of 1970 which succeeded in paving the way for the University's Black Studies Department, and the Office of Minority Affairs.  Also, 2 February 1970 saw the first issue of "Our Choking Times", the first Black Student Campus Publication.  Afro-Am was succeeded by the All-African Student and Faculty Union.  Today, the Afrikan Student Union continues to carry on the efforts of these previous organizations.

Black Studies Department (Now the African-American & African Studies Department), originally established as an academic division in October 1969, obtained formal department status in 1972.

Black Studies Library was dedicated on November 10th, 1971.

Additional Insight:

An Interpretive History of African-American Education 1700 to 1950 http://www.coe.ohio-state.edu/EDPL/Gordon/courses/863/default.htm
African-American Experience in Ohio 1850-1920 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ohshtml/aaeohome.html

Greek Organizations

Pan-Hellenic Council at The Ohio State University http://www.osu.edu/students/npc/
OSU's Black Greek-Letter Organizations under PHC http://www.osu.edu/students/sgr/greekdom.html