Dr. Merze Tate was born Vernice “Vernie” Merze Tate on February 6, 1905 in Blanchard, Michigan. She was named valedictorian of Blanchard High School after the school burned and all students received diplomas in the 10th grade. She was 13 at the time. Although she was tops in the class, she it wasn’t prepared for college admission. She moved to Battle Creek and took a job as a maid to continue her high school education. In 1922, she graduated from Battle Creek Central High School.
She excelled at Battle Creek and her counselor sent an application to the University of Michigan. Her acceptance was rescinded when the school found out her race. Her employers contacted the president of Western State Teachers College (now Western Michigan University), Dr. Dwight Waldo, and told him about her. He gave her a scholarship and off she went to Kalamazoo. He also made the introduction to a family seeking a maid. Tate lived with the family and worked for them while attending classes.
She graduated in three years and in 1927 became the first African American woman to graduate from Western State Teachers College. However, she was unable to secure a secondary school teaching job in Michigan because of her race. She taught elementary school and then took a job at the segregated Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, Indiana which opened in 1927.
During the summers, she worked on a Master’s degree in history from Columbia University. In 1930, she completed the next rung of her academic career.
Back in Indianapolis, she began a club, the Merze Tate Travel Club and later known as the Merze Tate Explorers. She took students on field trips throughout the country.
Indiana News, March 19, 1932
She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. for most of her adult life having become a member when in Indianapolis. She won an Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. fellowship for foreign study in 1932. It was to have been a $1,000 but it was increased to $2,000 at the organization’s Boule. With the funding, she travelled to England in and earned a degree in International Relations from Oxford University in 1935. She was the first African American woman to attend Oxford. Tate defended her research paper, “Movement for Disarmament 1863-1914,” from an invalid’s chair because she broke her foot in a bicycle accident. She also missed the graduation ceremonies as she was confined to a nursing home while recovering from the injury.
Indiana News, January 2, 1932
While in Europe she traveled extensively. After her return to the United States, she earned a doctoral degree from Radcliffe College, the women’s coordinate of Harvard University. The degree was in government and international relations and she was the first African American woman to do so.
Alabama Tribune (Montgomery, Alabama), July 8, 1960
Between Cambridge and Washington, D.C. where she would live the rest of her life, she taught at several historically Black institutions, including Barber-Scotia Junior College, Bennett College and Morgan State University. She was a 1941 inductee of Phi Beta Kappa. Howard University offered her a job in 1942. She was one of the first two women to teach in Howard’s Department of History. She retired in 1977.
The National Urban League recognized her for outstanding achievement with its award in 1948. A globetrotter, she spent time as a Fulbright Scholar in India in 1950-51. She also served as a representative for the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In 1970, Western Michigan recognized her with a Distinguished Alumni Award. In 1981, she gave the university, $150,000 to create an information processing center for graduate research. Nine years later, she established the Merze Tate Student Academic Endowment Fund at Western Michigan University with a $1 million donation. She also endowed two Medallion Scholarship at the institution, WMU’s Sangren Hall is home to the Merze Tate Grant and Innovation Center.
Photo courtesy of Western Michigan University
She died on June 27, 1996, in Washington, DC at the age of 91 and is buried in Michigan.
