Success Factors of Young African American Women at a Historically Black College

2004 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-103
Author(s):  
Bridget Turner Kelly
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Historically Black ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Black College ◽  
Historically Black College ◽  
American Women

More Than the Sum of Their Struggles

2021 ◽  
pp. 128-147
Author(s):  
Donna L. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Social Location ◽  
American Women ◽  
Women Doctoral Students

Even in 2020, the plight of Black women in higher education saturates the literature. For decades, Black women have been trying to find their place in the academy. This chapter reveals the success factors of five first-generation African American women with Ph.D.s discovered through a narrative inquiry. The theoretical framework used in this study contends that social location and ideas produced by Black women help demystify the orientation of Black women and help illuminate their points of view. This study focused exclusively on capturing the success factors that contributed to the participants successfully navigating their doctoral journey. The findings exposed five success factors and better position the academy to support and replicate mechanisms to foster success and not assumptions of incompetence. This study allowed participants to provide wisdom to future generations and evidence to assist in shaping the trajectory for first-generation African American women doctoral students.

Chemical Educators

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeannette Brown
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Historically Black ◽  
Home Economics ◽  
University Of Chicago ◽  
American Women ◽  
Spelman College ◽  
Washington High School ◽  
The University

Johnnie Hines Watts Prothro was one of the first African American women scientists and researchers in the field of food chemistry and nutrition. Having grown up in the segregated American South, Dr. Protho became particularly interested in promoting healthy nutrition and diets for African Americans. Johnnie Hines Watts was born on February 28, 1922, in Atlanta, Georgia, in the segregated South. Her parents emphasized the importance of an education and she graduated from high school at the age of fifteen. She enrolled in the historically black Spelman College in Atlanta as a commuter student and received a BS degree with honors in Home Economics from Spelman in 1941. Following her graduation, she obtained a position as a teacher of foods and nutrition—the usual career path for African American women who earned bachelor’s degrees in science during the Jim Crow era—at Atlanta’s all-black Booker T. Washington High School. Watts taught at Booker T. Washington High School from 1941 to 1945, then moved to New York City to attend Columbia University, from which she received her MS degree in 1946. Armed with her master’s degree, Watts became an instructor of chemistry at a historically black Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She worked there during the 1946–1947 academic year before deciding to pursue a PhD. Watts enrolled in the University of Chicago after researching the doctoral offerings of several universities. She was the recipient of a number of scholarships and awards at the University of Chicago. Among the awards were the Laverne Noyes Scholarship (1948–1950), the Evaporated Milk Association Award (1950–1951), the Borden Award from the American Home Economics Association (1950– 1951), and a research assistantship (1951–1952). Watts married Charles E. Prothro in 1949. It is said that they met in Connecticut, but this is not clearly documented. Watts Prothro received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1952. Her dissertation title is “The Relation of the Rates of Inactivation of Peroxidase, Catecholase, and Ascorbase to the Oxidation of Ascorbic Acid in Vegetables.”

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document