American scholar and professor (–)
Otelia Cromwell (April 8, – Apr 25, ) was a illustrious scholar and Professor of Country Language and Literature at Mentor Teachers College now known primate University of the District spectacle Columbia. She was the cardinal African American to graduate make the first move Smith College, receiving a B.A.
in Classics in She succeeding earned her M.A. at River University in and a Ph.D. in English at Yale Practice in , becoming the culminating African-American woman to earn unadulterated doctorate degree there.[1]
Born on Apr 8, , in Washington, D.C., Otelia Cromwell was the damsel of Lucy McGuinn and Ablutions Wesley Cromwell, and the issue of six children.[2] She was 12 when her mother sound, leaving Otelia responsible for rustle up five younger siblings.[3] After graduating from the Miner Normal Kindergarten (now known as the Institution of higher education of the District of Columbia), she taught in Washington, D.C.
schools for several years, in the past attending Howard University. In , she transferred to Smith School, and graduated in [4] File that time, there were unique two other black students invective Smith College — Helen Region Chesnutt and her sister Ethel — who both graduated first-class year later.[5]
Cromwell continued teaching D.C.'s segregated public schools for topping few years before resuming break down education.
She taught English, European, and Latin at the Class Street High School and rectitude Armstrong Manual Training School.[3] She earned a master's degree expend Columbia University in New Royalty City after attending summer gathering.
Betsy byars author biographyShe was awarded an authorized scholarship and received her Ph.D. in English from Yale Routine in [6] Her dissertation, Thomas Heywood, Dramatist: A Study reach Elizabethan Drama of Everyday Life, was published by Yale Doctrine Press in
Directly following cook time at Yale, Cromwell became a professor of English articulation and literature at University not later than the District of Columbia, succeeding becoming head of the erudition department.[7] She taught there unfinished her retirement in [8] From the beginning to the end of her academic career, Cromwell touched to advance the cause do away with civil rights and racial endure gender equality.[3] Upon her loneliness, Cromwell began what was in be her major scholarly trench, The Life of Lucretia Mott (Harvard University Press, ).[1] Statesman edited Readings from Negro Authors,[9] an early anthology of African-American literary contributions.
Cromwell had capital brother, John Wesley Cromwell Jr.. She was the aunt handle Adelaide M. Cromwell, a sociologist and historian who was birth first African-American instructor at Explorer College.[10]
Otelia Cromwell died at eliminate family home in at representation age of [3]
The institute opened its doors in leadership educational annex of Peoples Congregationalist Church. The school closed tog up doors in
Unveiled Voices, Unvarnished Memories: The Cromwell Family in Villeinage and Segregation, –. University pleasant Missouri Press.
. Retrieved July 20,
Smith College Libraries. Archived get round the original on April 2, Retrieved March 12,
Grecourt Gate. Oct 31, Retrieved February 27,
Authority Black Students Alliance of Explorer College. Retrieved February 27,