Mathematician Kelly Miller Essay

On July 18th, 1863, the world was given a young man destined to promote greatness from his present, and to the years to come. Mathematician Kelly Miller advanced the intellectual life of African Americans, earning several advanced degrees. He was the first black man to attend Johns Hopkins University. His journey to success started when a minister noticed his aptitude for mathematics, he was then sent to the Fairfield Institute to study, earning himself a scholarship to Howard University. From 1887 to 1889 Miller performed graduate work in Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy. When an increase in tuition ($100 to $200) and a shortage of money prevented Miller from continuing his studies, Kelly Miller left (and this is when

Characteristically, Miller had two reputations as a public policy analyst, first as a compromiser between black radicals and conservatives, and second as a race spokesman during the prolonged crisis of disfranchisement and the denial of civil rights by white supremacists and their elected representatives in Congress. The years after World War I were difficult ones for Miller. J. Stanley Durkee, the last of Howard 's white presidents, was appointed in 1918 and set out to curtail the baronial power of the deans by building a new central administration. Miller, a perpetually powerful dean, was demoted in 1919 to dean of a new junior college, which was later abolished in 1925. A leader in the movement to have a black president of Howard, Miller was a perennial favorite of the alumni but was never selected. Although his influence at Howard declined significantly by the late 1920s through his retirement in 1934, Miller 's stature as a commentator on race relations and politics remained high. He had become alarmed by the vast social changes stimulated by World War I and was seen as increasingly conservative. He opposed the widespread abandonment of farming by black