Professor Marguerite Williams (1895-1991): The first black person to achieve a geoscience doctorate in the USA

Marguerite Williams – a lifelong geosciences educator. While earning a bachelors she worked as a teacher, and afterwards became an assistant professor at Miner Teacher College (now part of University of the District of Columbia). Throughout, she was mentored by Dr Ernest Everett Just – a trailblazing black biologist.
After her M.A. in 1930 (Columbia University) she went on to a PhD – A history of erosion in the Anacostia drainage basin. Graduating in 1942, Marguerite became a full professor at Miner and taught at Howard University. Professor Williams continued to teach until retiring in 1955.