Who is Mary Jane Patterson?

Although she is a not well known figure Mary Jane Patterson was a pioneer in black education and paved the way for other black female educators.

She was the first black woman in the U.S. to earn an M.A degree May 21, 1862- when this is awarded by Oberlin College. Oberlin had a large community of black families, some were freed slaves and some were fugitive slaves. Oberlin was popular because it had racially integrated Co-ed college. Henry Patterson worked as a master mason, and for many years the family boarded large numbers of Black students in their home.

Mary Jane Patterson enrolled in Oberlin College in 1857 for a one year preparatory course. After one year she enrolled in what was called a “gentleman’s” or classical course. At the time woman would take the “ladies” course which gave one a literary certificate not a bachelor’s degree. Patterson’s classmate Emma Brown (a black educator) wrote in a letter on May 27, 1860, quoted by Dorothy Sterling in We Are Your Sisters: Black Woman in the Nineteenth Century, in it she says: There are 200 lady students. Quite a number . . . There are very few colored students - that is comparatively speaking . . . There is one colored girl [presumably Mary Jane Patterson] taking a classical course. I have been told that she is a pretty good scholar. [1] Mary Patterson’s sibling’s John, Emma, and Chanie Ann all attended Oberlin College as well. Patterson graduated with a B.A. and highest honors from Oberlin. She was the first black woman to graduate from an established college with a four year degree. --courtesy, blackfacts.com & wikipedia.

If my God-daughter or future daughters ever ask me 'who was the first black woman to get a Master's degree', I can tell her.