Kelly Miller
Born: July 18, 1863. Died December 29, 1939
place: Winnsboro, South Carolina
Kelly Miller was the sixth of ten children born to Kelly Miller, a free Negro who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and Elizabeth (Roberts) Miller, a slave. Kelly Miller began his education in a local school established during the Reconstruction period following the end of the Civil War. Miller was admitted to Fairfield Institute, a school founded by the Northern Presbyterian Church in Winnsboro, South Carolina, based on the recommendation of a missionary (Reverend Willard Richardson) who recognized a mathematical aptitude in Miller. In 1880 Miller was awarded a scholarship to attend Howard University, were he was enrolled in the Prepartory Department which emphasised a curriculum in Latin, Greek, and Mathematics. Miller completed the normal three-year curriculm in two years. During the period from 1882 to 1886, while Miller attended the College Department at Howard University, he also worked as a clerk for the U.S. Pension Office for two years. Kelly Miller was appointed to the position in the Pension Office after taking the civil service examination a test prescribed by the Civil Service Act passed during the administration of President Grover Cleveland. Miller's greatest influence while at Howard University where his professors of Latin (James Monroe Gregory) and History (Howard president William Weston Patton, who also taught philosophy and conducted weekly vesper services required of all students). He received a Bachelor of Science from Howard University in 1886, a Master of Arts in 1901 and a law degree (LL.D.) in 1903. Miller continued to work at the Pension Office after graduation in 1886.
Johns Hopkins University became the first american school to offer graduate work in mathematics. Miller studied mathematics at The Johns Hopkins University from 1886 to 1887 under the direction of Captain Edgar Frisby, an English mathematician at the U.S. Naval Observatory. Frisby was also the assistant of the person who recommended Miller for graduate study, Simon Newcomb, a famous astronomer in charge to the the U.S. Naval Observatory and a Professor of Mathematics at The Johns Hopkins University. At the end of 1887, Miller asked Newcombe to recommend Miller's admission to The Johns Hopkins University to University President Daniel Coit Gilman. As Miller was to be the first African American student admitted to the university, the recommendation was decided by the Board of Trustees, who decided to admit Miller based on the university founder's known Quaker beliefs. From 1887 to 1889 Miller performed postgraduate work in Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy. When an increase in tuition prevented Miller from continuing his post-graduate studies Kelly Miller taught at the M Street High School in Washington, D.C. (1889-1890), whose principal was Francis L. Cardozo. He was appointed as Professor of Mathematics at Howard University in 1890.
Most of the data we have on Kelly Miller comes from the African American Faces of Science.
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6/9/97