Last week we examined the life and legacy of Evelyn Boyd Granville, a gifted mathematician who was among the so-called “Hidden Figures” at NASA. In fact, she was even more obscured than the more noted of the women, but nonetheless made a phenomenal contribution to the space race. William Claytor, like Granville, was an extremely talented mathematician, but unlike her, he had no affiliation with NASA.
He was born on January 4, 1908, in Norfolk, Va. but it was in the public schools of Washington, D.C. where he received early education.
He was the oldest child of Simsie Thorne, a graduate of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and William O. Claytor, who taught at the Southen Norfolk Colored Graded School. He was five when the family moved to the nation’s capital. Again like Granville, or at least her mother and aunt, Claytor worked at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, before establishing his own dental practice in the city.
In 1929 and 1930, respectively, he earned his B.A. and M.A. from Howard University. Claytor was mentored by the esteemed Dr. Dudley Woodard, Jr., his thesis advisor, and the second African-American to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics. At Howard, he was also taught by Dr. Elbert Cox, the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics.
On the recommendation of Dr. Woodard, Claytor was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences where in 1934, with a focus on topology, he obtained his doctorate in mathematics—the third Black American to earn the distinction. Claytor’s education journey at Penn was facilitated by a Harrison scholarship.
With his freshly minted doctorate, Dr. Claytor accepted a teaching position at West Virginia State College where after a three-year stint he was funded by a Rosenwald Fellowship to a post-doctoral position at the University of Michigan. Among the significant moments at West Virginia State College was having Katherine Coleman Johnson as one of his students. She, of course, is best known as one of the “Hidden Figures” and deemed the “human computer” with her calculations that helped John Glenn complete his orbital flight.
At University of Michigan, however, the rampant racial discrimination denied him an opportunity to teach at the institution. During World War II., he served as an instructor in Anti-Aircraft Artillery. After the war, he was offered a faculty slot at Howard University. The intense racism had stifled his interest in research, and he limited his academic time solely to teaching. In 1948, he married the psychologist Mae Belle Pullins, who shared his love of mathematics. They had one daughter. During his long tenure at Howard, he was often invited to various conferences, including insightful presentations at the national sessions of the American Mathematical Society. As in the past, these various invitations did not include accommodations at the hotels where the events were held. This abject racism, at last, led him to decline many of the offers he received.
Dr. Claytor was trained in mathematical research, according to Karen Hunger Parshall, a professor of history and mathematics at the University of Virginia. In her article titled “Mathematics and the Politics of Race: The Case of William Claytor,” she wrote that “de jure segregations in the south and de facto segregation elsewhere, left the research universities largely closed to him, and made it hard for him even to participate in the activities of his professional societies.”
Eventually, Dr. Claytor became the chair of the Department of Mathematics at Howard and remained at the school until his retirement in 1965. Two years later, he passed away at 59. In 1980, the National Association of Mathematicians instituted the Claytor Lecture Series in his honor.
Kudos to Sibrina Collins, an organometallic chemist and former writer and editor for the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her research and publication of this profile. Collins became the first executive director of the Marburger STEM Center at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan.
Here is one of Dr. Claytor’s articles, which I have no idea what’s being discussed, but maybe one or two of my readers can decipher it.