In 1949 Evelyn Boyd Granville at Yale University and Marjorie Lee Browne at the University of Michigan became the first African-American women to receive doctoral degrees in mathematics. Granville's specialty is complex analysis and her career has encompassed both college teaching and applied work in the United States space program during its formative years.

Granville was born in Washington, D.C., on May 1, 1924. Her father, William Boyd, worked as a custodian in their apartment building. He did not stay with the family, however, and Granville was raised by her mother, Julia Walker Boyd, and her mother's twin sister, Louise Walker, both of whom worked as examiners for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Granville and her sister Doris, who was a year and a half older, often spent portions of their summers at the Linden, Virginia, farm of a family friend.

The public schools of Washington, D...