English: Biography: Born in Washington, D.C., Eva Dykes graduated from the M Street High School and Howard University. With the encouragement of her uncle, Dr. James Howard, she continued her educaton at Radcliffe College where she received an A.B. and A.M. as well as a doctorate in English philology. She was, with Sadie Alexander and Georgiana Simpson, one of the three first Black women to earn Ph.D. degrees in the United States (1921). She taught at Walden University, Dunbar (formerly M street) High School, then at Howard University for 15 years, where she was voted the best all-around teacher in the university by the faculty of the College of Liberal Arts. Having become a Seventh-Day Adventist, she combined her religious conviction and her academic interests by accepting an invitation in 1944 to teach at Oakwood College, a Seventh-Day Adventist school in Huntsville, Ala. She played a significant role in the college's efforts to achieve accreditation and expand its curriculum. In 1973 she was honored by having the college library named for her. She studied music from the age of five and was pianist, organist, and choir director, as well as the author of several books, including The Negro in English Romantic Thought.

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

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