Mason, Ruth

Description

Scanned from microfilm held at The University of Iowa Libraries. Contact the Iowa Women's Archives at the University of Iowa Libraries: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/forms/iwa/ First Negress Candidate for Ph.D., in lowa: Lulu Merle Johnson Is One of 8 Negresses to Receive M.A. Degree Here By RUTH MASON Among the candidates for the degree of doctor of philosophy in the University of Iowa's history department is a poised, mellow-voiced woman outstanding among her fellow candidates in one respect. She is Lulu Merle Johnson, the first Negro woman Ph.D. candidate in an Iowa institution and one of the scant handful of American Negro women attaining such a status. Her story is another version of a familiar pattern, the story of the farm girl who achieves distinction for her father was an Iowa farmer. She was born near Gravity. la., on the land which her grandfather had purchased in 1882. Though she and her family were the only Negroes in the community she does not recall that it set her apart in any way. In high school she was the captain of the girls' basketball team, and like most other girls, she served her turn as secretary of her Sunday-school class. After her graduation from the Clinton high school to which she went her senior year, she came to the university and remained until she received her M.A. degree in 1930. Here again she was doing pioneer work, for she and a fellow student, Missouri Allen, were the first Negro women to receive Master’s degrees...

Record Contributed By

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa)