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Dr. Marion Antoinette Richards Myles was an African- American Doctor of Science with a specialty and emphasis on plant growth and plant physiology. She is most notable for becoming the first African American appointed to the faculty of the University of Mississippi, the Rebels.  As an African American woman in Jim Crow United States, where even a high school education, for many Black people, was an unreachable privilege, Dr. Myles was able to attain multiple degrees, including a doctorate.

Her post-secondary education journey began at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received a bachelor’s degree of science in education in 1937. From there she immediately began her time in Georgia, where she attended Atlanta University. There she graduated with a master’s degree in biology, completing her master’s thesis: A Study of Growth Curvatures in the Coleoptile of Rye.

Dr. Myles began her professional work in post-secondary education 1941, when she began her work at the historically Black Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas as the head of the biology department. She put her professional career on hold and began her pursuit of her doctorate at Iowa State University. Dr. Myles graduated from Iowa State in 1945, becoming one of the first African American women to receive a doctorate at that time, completing her dissertation on Relations of Hormones to Correlation in Maize. During her time at Iowa State Dr. Myles focused on the physiology of plants, specifically how different stages of development interact with growth hormones in specific plants. Dr. Myles’ research provided critical groundwork for later hormone and genetic modification processes.

After graduating from Iowa State Dr. Myles returned to her work as a post-secondary educator. She moved to Nashville and started as an associate professor of biology and later a professor of agronomy at the Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College. From there Dr. Myles moved again, this time to Fort Valley, Georgia. Her time in Georgia was an eventful one-- Here she became a professor of zoology and botany, and later the head of the science department at the historically Black Fort Valley State College. From there Dr. Myles assumed the role as head of the joint science and mathematics department. While there, she focused her research on organic chemical for which she won a Carnegie Research Grant. Dr. Myles concluded her time in Fort Valley and returned to Nashville to work at Vanderbilt University until 1965, to research enzymes and enzymatic reactions. Dr. Myles’ next career opportunity made literal headlines. She was appointed to an assistant professor of pharmacology position at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, making her the first African American and first African American woman to break the color barrier at the university.

Dr. Myles’ died in 1969, but her legacy was a testament to Black achievement through academic focus and engagement. She prioritized her pursuit to education past in spite discrimination in the southern United States and became a historical role model for Black women in America.