Dr. Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes

Dr. Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes was born as Martha Euphemia Lofton on September 11, 1890, to Dr. William Lofton and Mrs. Lavina Day Lofton in Washington, D.C. Haynes earned her Bachelor’s of Arts in Mathematics from Smith College. She then went on to earn her Master’s of Education and further graduate study in mathematics from the University of Chicago. At the time, she founded the math department at Miner Teachers College, which is now known as the University of the District of Columbia. Haynes later became a professor at the college and headed the math department as she worked to earn her Ph.D., degree from the Catholic University of America in mathematics, making herself the first African American woman with that title.

After Dr. Lofton completed her doctorate, she began influencing the academics in the D.C. areas, teaching math at a number of high schools, being a professor at the District of Columbia Teacher College, and chairing the Division of Mathematics and Business Education. Within her distinguished career positions and even through retirement, Haynes advocated for poor students and better school systems, playing an instrumental role in changing the face of the education system namely desegregation of public school and opposition to the tack system. As a result of her service to the Catholic Church and community, she earned a Papal medal, “Pro Ecclesia and Pontifex”, in 1959.

Dr. Haynes later joined the District of Columbia Board of Education and became the president as she continued the fight against racial segregation. On July 25, 1980, at the age of 89, Haynes passed. As her legacy would suggest, she gifted the Catholic University of America with $700,000 from her estate, which endowed a chair and student loan fund in the department of education. Through her excellence as a mathematician and her activism within the educational community, Dr. Haynes embodied what it means to be a Black STEAMer.

If you or someone you know is eligible, apply for the Ron Brown Scholar Program for African American Students! http://www.scholarshipsonline.org/2012/04/ron-brown-scholar-program.html

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