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Biography · Education & Scholarship

Merze Tate

1905–1996

United States

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Biography

Vernie Merze Tate (February 6, 1905 – June 27, 1996) was a professor, scholar and expert on United States diplomacy. She was the first African-American graduate of Western Michigan Teachers College, first African-American woman to attend the University of Oxford, first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in government and international relations from Harvard University (then Radcliffe College), as well as one of the first two female members to join the Department of History at Howard University.

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Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

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