MARY JANE PATTERSON     

Mary Jane was the daughter of the formerly enslaved Henry Irving Patterson, who gained his freedom in 1852.

She was the first Black woman to earn a university degree (a Bachelor of Arts) at Oberlin College. She achieved this by refusing to take the courses typically assigned to women at Oberlin and instead enrolling in a programme of Greek, Latin, and advanced mathematics — one originally intended only for “gentlemen”.
In doing so, she defied the prevailing rules of her time on two levels: both as a woman and as a Black woman.