Beyond Banneker

Erica N. Walker

Description

Erica N. Walker presents a compelling story of Black mathematical excellence in the United States. Much of the research and discussion about Blacks and mathematics focuses on underachievement; by documenting in detail the experiences of Black mathematicians, this book broadens significantly the knowledge base about mathematically successful African Americans. Beyond Banneker demonstrates how mathematics success is fostered among Blacks by mathematicians, mathematics educators, teachers, parents, and others, a story that has been largely overlooked by the profession and research community. Based on archival research and in-depth interviews with thirty mathematicians, this important and timely book vividly captures important narratives about mathematics teaching and learning in multiple contexts, as well as the unique historical and contemporary settings related to race, opportunity, and excellence that Black mathematicians experience. Walker draws upon these narratives to suggest ways to capitalize on the power and potential of underserved communities to respond to the national imperative for developing math success for new generations of young people.
Preface: “The Substance of Things Hoped For, the Evidence of Things Not Seen”

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. Kinships and Communities

3. Navigating the Mason-Dixon Divide

4. “Representing the Race”

5. Flying Home

6. Conclusions

Appendix A. Methodological Note
Appendix B. Interview Protocol

Notes
References
Index

Sujets

• Sciences formelles
• Guides de référence et manuels mathématiques
• Références et manuels de mathématiques
• Éducation
• Science
• Education
• Mathematics
• Ethnic studies
• History of education

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 09 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438452173
• Langue: English

Extrait

BEYOND BANNEKER
BEYOND BANNEKER
BLACK MATHEMATICIANS AND THE PATHS TO EXCELLENCE
Erica N. Walker
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walker, Erica N. Beyond Banneker : Black Mathematicians and the Paths to Excellence / Erica N. Walker. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-5215-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. African American mathematicians. 2. African American mathematicians—Education (Graduate) 3. Doctor of philosophy degree—United States. I. Title. QA28.W35 2014 510.89'96073--dc23
2013029950
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to my parents—in memory of my father, John T. Walker, Jr., and with gratitude to my mother, Iona S. Walker. Their influence, guidance, and love of learning have made me the person I am.
CONTENTS
Preface: “The Substance of Things Hoped For, the Evidence of Things Not Seen”
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Kinships and Communities
Chapter 3. Navigating the Mason-Dixon Divide
Chapter 4. “Representing the Race”
Chapter 5. Flying Home
Chapter 6. Conclusions
Appendix A. Methodological Note
Appendix B. Interview Protocol
Notes
References
Index
PREFACE
“The Substance of Things Hoped For, the Evidence of Things Not Seen”
Thomas Fuller, known as the Virginia Calculator, was stolen from his native Africa at the age of fourteen…. When he was about seventy years old, two gentlemen . . , having heard … of his extraordinary powers of arithmetic, sent for him and had their curiosity sufficiently gratified by the answers which he gave…. In 1789 he died at the age of 80 years, having never learned to read or write, in spite of his extraordinary power of calculation.
—E. W. Scripture, Arithmetical Prodigies (1891, p. 3)
T homas Fuller’s (1709–1789) largely unknown life stands as an unfortunate record of limits placed on a potential mathematical genius. But for his birth into a free American family, the mathematical contributions of the better-known Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806), also of African descent, would similarly be lost to history. Fuller’s anonymity and Banneker’s relative fame stand as a commentary on the obstacles and opportunities that have circumscribed Black American mathematical talent across three centuries.
These two men—Fuller and Banneker—are the first recognized mathematical personages in the United States of African descent. It is practically impossible to name another U.S.-born Black mathematician until Elbert Frank Cox, who was the first Black person to earn his doctorate in mathematics in the United States, in 1925 (from Cornell University). It took nearly 20 years after Cox’s achievement before the first African American woman, Euphemia Lofton Haynes, earned her doctorate in mathematics, in 1943, from Catholic University. The obstacles that Banneker, Fuller, and others faced in demonstrating their mathematical potential and talent centered primarily around the second-class status ascribed to them in the United States due to their racial heritage. But there was opportunity as well, even within the rigid confines of the segregated era. At times, opportunity was crafted and cultivated so that they could surmount obstacles that had nothing to do with merit but everything to do with race. Sometimes opportunity, fleeting and astonishingly present, was seized—a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
What may be surprising about the Black mathematicians’ narratives shared in this book is that many of the elements in Fuller’s and Banneker’s 18th-century mathematical lives—talent unrecognized and sometimes unrewarded, as well as the sometimes startling and serendipitous nature of opportunity—resonate throughout the lives of contemporary Black mathematicians, young and old. History—the lived experiences of Black Americans in the United States as slaves, as free persons, as second-class and finally equal citizens under the law—plays an indelible role in shaping the experiences of Black mathematicians. This shared history and how it manifests itself in the formative, educational, and professional experiences of Black mathematicians is reflected in how they come to do and practice mathematics (Walker, 2009, 2011). This is not to say that the mathematics in which Black mathematicians engage is a special kind of mathematics unique to their ethnic heritage but rather that for many, how they conceptualize their professional identities and communities is in large part based on their experiences of being both Black and mathematically talented.
When told of this project exploring the experiences of Black mathematicians, defined for this book as those who have earned their PhDs in a mathematical science, a colleague in educational research asked “Are there any?” That this question can be asked with some sincerity begins to suggest the very real racialized space(s) that Black mathematicians occupy in a supposedly color-blind discipline and perhaps explains why Benjamin Banneker was compelled more than two centuries ago in 1791 to write Thomas Jefferson a letter exhorting him, at length, to do what he could to ameliorate the stereotypes about African Americans’ intellectual capacity 1 :
I apprehend you will readily embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions which so generally prevail with respect to us. (Bedini, 1999, p. 158)
Banneker’s appeal to Jefferson to use his authority and power to combat the (mis)representations of African Americans’ intellectual ability finds a counterpoint two centuries later in the writings of the 10th Black American to earn his PhD in mathematics, Wade Ellis, Sr.:
As a people, we have had more than our share of the academically hereditary disaffection all peoples seem to experience relative to mathematics…. Nowadays our promising youth are even more menacingly threatened by exposure to teachers … who have been convinced to their very viscera that Blacks … are abysmally and irrevocably hopeless as far as mathematics is concerned. (Newell, Gipson, Rich, Stubblefield, 1980, p. ix)
Ellis’s words appear in the first volume of its kind devoted to Black mathematicians and their research. 2 Like Banneker, Ellis (1909–1989) (who earned his PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1944 and was the first Black mathematician to work as a faculty member in a predominantly White institution, Oberlin College) was concerned that Blacks—specifically, Black youths—might be hampered by others’ limited perceptions of their intellectual potential and ability. Both Ellis and Banneker would presume that mathematical talent among African Americans is not singular and rare.
This book answers questions about uniqueness and existence. But beyond providing answers for these questions, it demonstrates the power of history, place, and community in cultivating mathematics excellence and identity. It explores how Black mathematicians combat negative perceptions of their mathematics ability. It also examines how they form communities that support and contribute to mathematical knowledge and how these communities occupy multiple spaces within formal and informal educational contexts. It links the practices of some mathematicians to those of their forebears and honors the work and lives of those who, like Thomas Fuller, are woefully undersung.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to acknowledge, with immense gratitude, all of the mathematicians who participated in this study and generously shared their important stories with me. Their memories, histories, and experiences were so rich that a journal article was not enough to capture their mathematical lives, and although I fear this book is also too limited a forum for their narratives, I hope they believe it does them justice. I especially thank Drs. Clarence Stephens, Evelyn Granville, Scott Williams, Sylvia Bozeman, Bill Massey, Mel Currie, Johnny Houston, and Duane Cooper, as well as Drs. Ron Mickens and Fred Bowers, for their active encouragement, their advice, and their support of this project. I am particularly appreciative of Dr. David Blackwell, who spoke with me early on but sadly passed away before I finished this book. All were tremendously helpful; any errors in this work are my own.
This book could not have been completed without the support of Teachers College colleagues. In particular, I thank Professor Fran Schoonmaker for her interest and support of my work with high school mathematics students and in addition, for suggesting several years ago when I told her about the very interesting interviews with mathematicians I was conducting, that I had a book here. I also thank the provost and dean of Teachers College, Thomas James, and the Mathematics, Science, and Technology Department chairperson, O. Roger Anderson, for their critical support of this project.
I am so grateful to all of my colleagues in the Program in Mathematics: they have always supported and valued my work in multiple ways. This is a rare gift, and I appreciate their interest in this project. Thanks especially to Drs. Henry Pollak, Bruce Vogeli, Alexander Karp, and H. Philip Smith for many consultations, conversations, and connections to mathematicians, as well as TC faculty colleagues Anna Neumann and Aaron Pallas for their support of this