Mary Jane Patterson (1840–1894) was the first Black woman in the United States to earn a bachelor’s degree, graduating from Oberlin College in 1862. Born into slavery in Raleigh, North Carolina, she moved north with her family as a child and pursued education despite widespread racial and gender barriers. Patterson went on to become a respected educator and the first Black principal of the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth (later Dunbar High School) in Washington, D.C., where she champio