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Evelyn Boyd Granville: Complex Solutions to Real-Life Problems Women and Minorities in Mathematics Incorporating Their Mathematical Achievements Into School Classrooms Evelyn Boyd Granville: Complex Solutions to Real-Life Problems Sarah J. Greenwald Appalachian State University In 1949 Evelyn in mathematics faced the "double Boyd Granville whammy" of racism and sexism. became the second Like blacks, women were not black woman we considered to have the mental skills know of to earn a necessary for advanced Ph.D. in mathematical inquiry. For all mathematics. women, and especially for black Granville is well women, the field of mathematics was known for essentially shut tight. (The Journal of examining diverse Blacks in Higher Education, 2001) Evelyn Boyd Granville in 2001 and complex solutions to real-life problems - quite Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes literally, as her doctoral work was in the In 1943 Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes field of complex analysis, but this theme can (1890-1980) became the first black woman also be found in her approach to life and in we know of to her teaching philosophy. Over the course of conquer the race her career, she worked for NASA and others and sex barriers at in support of space missions, and then she the Ph.D. level in transitioned to college teaching, where she mathematics. She focused on the mathematics education of earned her Ph.D. future teachers. Today she continues to from Catholic speak as an advocate for mathematics. University and then Granville advises that: she had a Life is best lived when you try to distinguished career leave the world in better shape. Martha Euphemia Lofton in Washington, DC. (Smith, 2007) Haynes ca. 1900-1910 She taught in the By applying Granville’s own definition to public schools for her efforts to make the world better, it is forty-seven years and she occasionally easy to see that Granville has led a rich and taught part time at Howard University. Her wonderful life. husband was a deputy superintendent of public schools. After her retirement she First Black Women Mathematicians chaired the DC Board of Education, where The earliest black women who studied she had a central role in the integration of mathematics faced many barriers: DC public schools. In 1976, she reflected: Over the years, black women who I have been a mathematics scholar might be disposed to pursue a career all my life, through high school, through college, and then to get my hiring committee discovered that she was doctor’s degree in mathematics…. I black, “they just laughed” and the dean said didn’t expect to get my doctor’s they “would have to change the plumbing” degree, never, in mathematics, but I (Murray, 2000). At the national level, she wasn’t surprised in other areas advocated for the integration of mathematics because I enjoyed it so much. conferences and she was an outspoken critic (Kenschaft, 2005) of discrimination (Inniss and Bozeman, 2006). She accepted a position at Fisk Evelyn Boyd Granville University, a historically black institution, Evelyn Boyd Granville also grew up in but after two years at Fisk, she moved to Washington, DC. She was born on May 1, jobs in government and industry, which 1924. Haynes’ successful efforts to offered more opportunities. She used desegregate the DC public schools came numerical analysis to aid in the design of much later, so it is not surprising that missile fuses and she later worked on Granville attended a segregated high school. trajectory and orbit analyses for the The school was excellent and Granville feels Vanguard, Mercury, and Apollo space that this was due to teacher training and projects: dedication: I found employment in government Although the systems were separate, the and private industry, where I had to colored system was in no way inferior to study on my own areas of its counterpart. The system achieved a mathematics (mainly numerical national reputation for excellence analysis) needed to do the projects because teachers and administrators assigned to me. Whenever I speak to were well trained in their subject areas groups of young people I always and were dedicated to providing the kind advise them that learning never ends. of education that students needed to be The projects I worked on were in no able to compete in a larger community. way related to my thesis topic. (Case & Leggett, 2005) (Granville, 2007) Inspired by her high school teachers and with the encouragement of her mother and In 1960 Granville married Reverend aunt, she graduated as valedictorian of her Gamaliel Mansfield Collins. After her first class, and then received a partial scholarship marriage ended in divorce, Granville to attend Smith College. Her mother and returned to the academic world in 1967 to aunt made many sacrifices in order to help concentrate on teaching: her make up the difference between her How do you teach the beauty of scholarship and her bills (Kenschaft, 1981). mathematics, how do we teach them Granville earned degrees in mathematics to... solve problems, to acquaint and physics from Smith. She earned her them with various strategies of Ph.D. from Yale University in 1949, problem solving so they can take becoming the second black woman we know these skills into any level of of to obtain a doctorate in mathematics. mathematics? That's the dilemma we face. (O’Connor & Robertson, 2001) Granville spent a year at a research She married again in 1970, to Edward V. postdoctoral position. She then interviewed Granville, a real estate broker, and has for jobs but she encountered discrimination. remained happily married. At one school, she later found out, when the She has received numerous honors and Granville could be mentioned in that awards, including an honor from the context. National Academy of Sciences in 1999. Granville has retired a number of different Activities Related to her NASA Work times, but she still visits schools and Evelyn Boyd Granville loved working for universities, and seems to be drawn to NASA’s space programs: continue her efforts to show students the I can say without a doubt that this beauty of mathematics. In the summer of was the most interesting job of my 2007, she taught a “Math Warm-Up” class lifetime - to be a member of a group for students entering grades 6-7 (Granville, responsible for writing computer 2007). Just as Granville was inspired by her programs to track the paths of teachers, she continues to inspire students. vehicles in space. (Granville, 1989) A slide containing pictures of Granville and Changing Conditions for Black Women this quotation is available to print and Conditions began to change as black project (Greenwald, 2008). women obtained doctorates in mathematics, making it easier for others Many related student worksheets and who followed, but there is still much activities are available. In fact, NCTM and work to be done. As of 1999, it was NASA partnered to produce aerospace estimated that there were only 40 total activity books that align with the standards African American women who had for Pre K-2 (Hynes & Blair, 2005), grades 3- earned doctorates in mathematics, and 5 (Hynes & Hicks, 2005), grades 6-8 (Hynes only 20 more black women & Dixon, 2005), and grades 9-12 (House & mathematicians elsewhere in the world Day, 2005). (Kenschaft, 1999). More recent data is not available due to an increased Many on-line lesson plans can also be emphasis on privacy issues. found. For example, students in grades 6-8 can learn about the time and distance Activities and NCTM Standards required for travel in the solar system The following activities relate to Evelyn (National Council of Teachers of Boyd Granville and address numerous Mathematics, 2008) or they can become points in the NCTM Principles and scientists and engineers as they launch Standards for School Mathematics. spacecraft (Space Explorers, 2008). Teachers of grades 5-6 can even access Activities Related to her Thesis Work lesson plans on trajectory and projectile Granville says that her thesis was not at all motion designed for them by grade 9 impractical, since it prepared her well for students (Leaf, 2008). everything in life and work (Clayton, 2000). Curious students can examine Granville’s Students interested in Granville’s orbital thesis abstract (Boyd, 1949), but the content computations can access an article detailing on Laguerre series in the complex domain is the contributions, procedures, and too advanced for school classrooms. The equipment of mathematicians, engineers, NCTM number and operations standard and programmers who worked on Project specifies that students should understand Mercury (Gass, 1999). Advanced high complex numbers as solutions to quadratic school students in calculus or physics can equations with no real solutions, and also explore a technical article related to Project Mercury (National Aeronautics and and this activity sheet could be used as a Space Administration, 1962) that is dated way to introduce or review matrix methods. from the time that Granville was working on the Mercury program. Activity sheet solutions can be found at http://www.mathsci.appstate.edu/centroid/. Activity Sheet: Granville’s Challenge Granville says (Granville, 2007): References My advice to teachers of mathematics is to stress problem Boyd, E. (1949). Evelyn Boyd Abstract [On-line]. Available: solving and stress techniques http://www.agnesscott.edu/LRIDDLE/WOMEN/ available for problem solving. abstracts/granville_abstract.htm She then illustrates her teaching philosophy Case, B.A. and Leggett, A.M. (editors). (2005). by sharing her favorite challenge. The Complexities: Women in Mathematics. activity sheet that follows at the end of this Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Clayton, M. (2000). Interview: Evelyn Granville, A article explores this challenge. Proof that Math Opens Doors. The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, MA: May 16. The first portion of the activity sheet is Gass, S.I.
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