E’ry day this month, Philly’s 7th Ward, in partnership with the Center for Black Educator Development, will highlight a “Black Educator Hall of Famer.“ But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month. February is just the Blackest. Every day is an ongoing opportunity to learn and teach the colossal impact Black educators have had on society.
Kelly Miller
Edu-activist Kelly Miller was born on July 18, 1863, in Winnsboro, SC.
A minister noticed his aptitude for mathematics, so he was sent to the Fairfield Institute to study. Like many African Americans who took advantage of increased educational opportunities after the Civil War, Miller attended Howard University on a scholarship from his time at Fairfield in Washington, D.C., earning his B.A. in 1886.
After graduating from Howard in 1886, having excelled in Latin and Greek, as well as math and sociology, Miller secured a position at the U.S. Pension Office, where he had clerked as an undergraduate. In 1887, due in part to the recommendations of his professors and the institution’s Quaker leanings, he became the first Black man admitted to study at Johns Hopkins University, where he pursued postgraduate work in mathematics, physics, and astronomy.
An increase in tuition forced Miller to leave Johns Hopkins in 1889 without completing his graduate work. He continued his studies under Captain Edgar Frisby, an English mathematician at the US Naval Observatory, and briefly taught mathematics at M Street High School in Washington before being hired by Howard University as a professor of mathematics.
Miller taught mathematics at Howard for the next five years, while simultaneously pursuing graduate study at Howard University, earning an M.A. in 1901 and an LL.B. from Howard University Law School in 1903. He also served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1907 to 1918.
Miller retired from teaching full-time in 1931.
During his tenure as dean, Miller made considerable efforts to recruit students to the school by touring the Southern states; his efforts bore fruit, as undergraduate enrollment more than tripled during his first four years as dean.
In addition to his time as an educator, Miller was also a writer. He assisted W.E.B. Dubois in editing the Crisis Magazine and authored numerous lectures and pamphlets that examined the racial experiences of Black people. His ideas were published in more than 100 newspapers and in several books, including Race Adjustment (1908), Out of the House of Bondage (1914), and The Everlasting Stain (1924).
Happy Black History Month and make sure to read up on Kelly Miller, a member of the Black Educator Hall of Fame.
