The library at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, is named for Eva B. Dykes. She was the first African American woman to complete the requirements for a Ph.D. and the third African American to be conferred the degree because of the graduation ceremony dates.
Dykes grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended M Street High School, which was later named Dunbar High School. After graduation, she enrolled at Howard University. While there she became a member of the Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority, Inc. As her class valedictorian, she won the $10 scholarship awarded by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
In 1914, she graduated from Howard University summa cum laude. Dykes enrolled at Radcliffe University, which at that time was the women’s coordinate to the all-male Harvard University. At Radcliffe, she was forced to earn another bachelor’s degree before she could do graduate work. The Radcliffe B..A. was conferred magna cum laude. She earned a master’s and a Ph.D. from Radcliffe, as well as a Phi Beta Kappa key.
Dykes was the first African American woman to complete the requirements for the degree although because of Radcliffe’s late graduation, she was not the first to be awarded the degree. She was the third. The first Ph.D. awarded to an African American woman was conferred upon Dyke’s sorority sister, Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander. The University of Pennsylvania where Alexander studied had graduation ceremonies on June 15, 1921. Radcliffe’s graduation was a week later.
Dykes taught at Dunbar High School while working and defending her dissertation. She studied the attitudes and writings of Alexander Pope in her dissertation, Pope and His Influence in America from 1715 to 1815. She had a short stint teaching at the now defunct Walden University and spent 15 years on the faculty of Howard University. While at Howard she coauthored Readings from Negro Authors for Schools and Colleges. In 1942, her book, The Negro in English Romantic Thought: Or a Study in Sympathy for the Oppressed, was published.
She became a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1920. When she joined the faculty of Oakwood University. a Seventh-day Adventist college in 1944, she was the only doctorate holding faculty member. Moreover, the school was unaccredited. As chair of the English Department, she was an integral part of leading the academic accreditation process to a successful outcome. She spent the rest of her career at Oakwood. After retirement in 1968, she remained in Huntsville and continued to teach as the opportunity presented itself. The Oakwood library was named in her honor in 1973 and she was became a Professor Emerita in 1980.
Dykes was also awarded a Citation of Excellence from the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for her contributions to its educational efforts. Dykes was 93 years old when she died on October 29, 1986.
The inscription at the bottom of the gravestone reads “First African American Female to complete studies for PHD Degree in US (1921).”
