Background
Euphemia Lofton was the first child and only daughter of William S. Lofton, a dentist and financier, and Lavinia Day Lofton.
Euphemia Lofton was the first child and only daughter of William S. Lofton, a dentist and financier, and Lavinia Day Lofton.
She was the first African-American woman to gain a Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics, from the Catholic University of America in 1943. She was the valedictorian of M Street High School in 1907 and then graduated from Washington District of Columbia In 1943 gained her Doctor of Philosophy from The Catholic University of America with a dissertation, supervised by Aubrey Landrey, entitled The Determination of Sets of Independent Conditions Characterizing Certain Special Cases of Symmetric Correspondences.
Miner Normal School with distinction in 1909. She went on to earn an undergraduate mathematics major (and psychology minor) from Smith College in 1914. She gained a masters degree in education from the University of Chicago in 1930.
Doctor Haynes "contributed quite grandly to the educational system of the District of Columbia." She taught in the public schools of Washington, District of Columbia, for 47 years and was the first woman to chair the District of Columbia School Board.
She taught first grade at Garrison and Garfield Schools, and mathematics at Armstrong High School. She taught mathematics and served as chair of the Mathematics Department at Dunbar High School.
Haynes was a professor of mathematics at Miner’s Teachers College where she was chair of the Division of Mathematics and Business Education, a department she created. She retired in 1959 from the public school system, but went on to establish the mathematics department at Miners Teacher"s College.
She also occasionally taught part-time at Howard University.
Haynes was involved in many community activities. Euphemia Lofton Haynes died on July 25, 1980 in her hometown, Washington, District of Columbia She had set up a trust fund to support a professorial chair and student loan fund in the School of Education, giving $700,000 to Catholic University. She died of a heart attack in 1980.
Her family papers are housed in the Catholic University archives.