Mary Levi Smith (née Mary Levi; 1936 – November 28, 2020) was an American educator who served as the 11th president of Kentucky State University (KSU) from 1991 to 1998. She was the first female president of KSU and the second woman to lead a state…
Mary Lee Mills (August 1912 – February 2, 2010) was an American nurse. Born into a family of eleven children, she attended the Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in a nursing degree and became a registered nurse. After working as a midwife,…
Mary Lee Tate (1893–1939), was an American visual artist and teacher. She was known for her landscape and decorative paintings, which exhibited nationally. Tate was African American, and had also worked as an art teacher at local Black schools in…
Mary Logan Reddick (December 31, 1914 – October 1, 1966) was an American neuroembryologist who earned her PhD from Radcliffe College, Harvard University in 1944. She was a full professor, first at Morehouse College, and then at the University of Atlanta…
Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions).…
Mary Louise Brown (1861 – March 9, 1927) was a physician and teacher who devoted over 25 years of her life to servicing the African-American community of Washington D.C. Brown was the first African-American woman to receive a wartime medical commission…
Mary Lovelace O'Neal (February 10, 1942 – May 10, 2026) was an American visual artist and educator. Her work is focused on abstracted mixed-media (primarily in painting and printmaking) and minimalism. She was a professor emeritus at the University of…
Mary M. Frasier (1938–2005) was a famous African American educator who specialized in the area of gifted education at the University of Georgia. Frasier was born May 17, 1938, in South Carolina. Frasier worked to elevate the educational standing of African…
Mary Magdalen Healy, CND (born Eliza Healy; December 23, 1846 – September 13, 1919) was an American Catholic religious sister who served in the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal. Healy was born into the notable Healy family of Macon, Georgia; her…
Mary Matilda (Tilly) Winslow was the first female Black Canadian to attend, starting in 1901, and graduate from the University of New Brunswick. She graduated with a BA in Classics in 1905, ranking at the top of her class. She was born in Woodstock, New…
Mary McHenry (née Mary Elizabeth Williamson, formerly Murphy; January 23, 1933 – March 1, 2021) was "credited with bringing African-American literature to Mount Holyoke College," where she taught from 1974 to 1988, retiring as Emeritus Professor of…
Mary Moultrie (born Mary Ann Moultrie; 1943- April 27, 2015) was a nurse's aid and civil rights activist. She was elected president of the union Local 1199B,the organized workers of the Medical College hospital of the University of South Carolina, where…
Mary Powell Burrill (August 1881 – March 13, 1946) was an early 20th-century African-American female playwright of the Harlem Renaissance, who inspired Willis Richardson and other students to write plays. Burrill herself wrote plays about the Black…
Mary Perry Smith (May 29, 1926 – August 10, 2015) was an American mathematics educator who cofounded the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement program and the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
Mary Smith Peake, born Mary Smith Kelsey (1823 – February 22, 1862), was an American teacher, humanitarian and a member of the black elite in Hampton, best known for starting a school for the children of former slaves starting in the fall of 1861 under…
Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston (born Mary Sampson Patterson; c. 1835 – 1915) was an American abolitionist, the first African-American woman to attend Oberlin College, and wife of notable abolitionists Lewis Sheridan Leary and Charles Henry Langston.…
Mary Caruthers Scales (September 24, 1928 – October 6, 2013) was a professor, civic leader, and funeral home owner. She was the first black faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University where she taught in the College of Education, and became…
Mary Schmidt Campbell (born October 21, 1947) is an American academic and government administrator, and museum director. She was the 10th president of Spelman College, serving from 2015 to 2022. Previously, she served as a director and curator for art…
Mary Silvina Burghardt Du Bois (1831–1885) was an American domestic worker. She was born a free woman as the granddaughter of a freedman landowner who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. She was the mother of the activist…
Mary Travis Bassett is an American physician and public health researcher. Bassett was the 17th Health Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, serving from September 2021 to December 2022. From 2014 to 2018, she was the commissioner of the…