- Patrick Francis Healy earned his Ph.D. from Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.
Technically, the honor of first African American Ph.D. could go to either Edward Alexander Bouchet or Patrick Francis Healy. Healy was the first American of part-African descent to earn a Ph.D., as well as the first biracial Jesuit priest. Healy earned his Ph.D. in 1865 from Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, and eventually became the 29th president of Georgetown University, facilitating Georgetown's transition from a small school to a modern university. While Healy achieved many firsts for African Americans, his racial and cultural identity is a bit ambiguous. He was the son of an Irish American father and a mixed-raced mother who was a slave, and he openly embraced both his black and his white ancestry, and was even considered by some circles to be white. However, Bouchet was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from an American university. - Edward Alexander Bouchet was born in 1852 in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, William Bouchet, was a former slave who had been freed by his master and became a pillar of the African-American community, serving as deacon for the Temple Street Church in New Haven. Edward, whose mother was Susan Cooley Bouchet, attended New Haven High School from 1866 to 1868 before being accepted to Hopkins Grammar School. He then went on to Yale College in 1870 and was classmates with the son of his father's former master. In 1874, Edward Alexander Bouchet continued graduate studies at Yale, earning his Ph.D. in only 2 years. He was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from an American university, and the sixth American of any race to earn a Ph.D. in physics.
- Because of racial segregation, Bouchet was denied prominent research opportunities. In spite of his credentials, he was also denied teaching positions at white universities. Nevertheless, he devoted his career to teaching and education. Bouchet taught chemistry and physics at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. He later taught at St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School in Virginia and served as principal of Lincoln High School in Gallipolis, Ohio. He was also a business manager for a hospital in St. Louis, as well as a U.S. Customs inspector. Bouchet continued teaching until 1913, when arteriosclerosis forced him to retire. He briefly returned to teaching at Bishop College in Texas, but retired again in 1916. He spent the last few years of his life in his childhood home in New Haven, where he died in 1918.
- Edward Alexander Bouchet was a prominent figure in the controversy between W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington; DuBois favored classical education, as Bouchet had pursued, and Washington favored focusing on vocational skills. As a student at Yale, Bouchet's education included mathematics, natural sciences, logic and rhetoric, and several languages including Latin and Greek. His Yale education had been sponsored by Philadelphia philanthropist Alfred Cope, a supporter of black educational advancement and a strong proponent of classical education. Cope later donated $40,000 to establish a science program at the Institute for Colored Youth (ICY), where Bouchet would teach for 26 years. In 1902, Bouchet resigned from ICY when the school board moved towards technical and vocational training.
- Although the extent of his historical impact is unknown, Edward Alexander Bouchet's influence on education is indisputable. According to the University of Buffalo, childhood friend Lillian Mitchell Allen credits Bouchet with inspiring young people (both black and white) to achieve their educational goals. She also credits him for his influence on her brother J. Arnot Mitchell, who would become the first African-American faculty member of Ohio State University. According to Gibbs Magazine, a former student of Bouchet described him as "a fine Christian gentleman, a consummate scholar, one who seemed very knowledgeable in all areas and yet was extremely modest and a person who set a wonderful example of politeness and graciousness for the community."
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