The Dr. Georgiana Rose Simpson Monument
Dr. Georgiana Rose Simpson was the first Black woman to earn a doctorate in the United States.
She earned her historic degree from the University of Chicago in 1921. Today, the Dr. Simpson monument is located in the Reynolds Club at the University of Chicago, a space once reserved for white men only.
About Dr. Simpson
Georgiana Rose Simpson was born in 1866 in Washington D.C. to David and Catherine Simpson. She was formally trained at the Normal School under Dr. Lucy E. Moten. In 1885, Simpson became an elementary school teacher.
After traveling to Germany to study the language, she became an instructor in German at the M Street High School, later known as Dunbar High School in Washington D.C. Simpson first came to the University of Chicago in the summer of 1906 to begin studying Romance languages. She formally enrolled to begin her bachelor’s degree in 1907. Simpson had elected to live in Green Hall, a women’s dormitory, but her arrival occasioned protests from several white Southern female students. Sophonisba Breckinridge, Head of Green Residence Hall, and Marion Talbot, Dean of Women, made an executive decision that Simpson could stay in the dorms.
Upon his return from summer vacation, President Harry Pratt Judson reversed this decision and asked Miss Simpson to find residence off campus, which she did. This established an informal policy that African American students could not live on campus. Despite this adversity, Simpson spent the next few years completing her bachelor’s degree through correspondence and summer courses. She was awarded her bachelor’s degree in 1911. Simpson returned to the University of Chicago in 1917 to begin her graduate work. She completed her doctoral dissertation entitled “Herder’s Conception of Das Volk,” under the supervision of Martin Schütze. In 1921, Simpson was awarded a doctorate in German Philology, making her one of the first African American women to earn a Ph.D. in the United States. She completed her historic degree at the age of 55. Simpson returned to Washington D.C. and continued her work as a teacher in modern languages at Dunbar High School, but her increased prestige and ability had become so evident to the public that Howard University called her to a professorship in 1931. Simpson interacted with many prominent scholars at the time, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Helen Pitts Douglass, and Carter G. Woodson. In 1939, Dr. Simpson retired from her position at Howard University. Dr. Simpson’s hobbies included playing the piano and walking. Dr. Simpson passed away on January 27, 1944, at the age of 78.
About the Monument
In 2017, Asya Akca and I raised 50,000 dollars to commission a bronze bust of Dr. Georgiana Simpson at the University of Chicago. We worked with Preston Jackson, a local Chicago artist, to bring Dr. Simpson’s accomplishments likeness back to life.
The monument is located across from the bronze relief of Harry Judson, the former President of the University of Chicago that removed Dr. Simpson from campus. The monument shows Dr. Simpson looking away from the bronze relief of Judson symbolizing not only the significance of her accomplishments but the full telling of a part of our university’s history.