Learn more about Edward Bouchet BHM:
As a student at the Artisan Street Colored School, where there was only one teacher, Edward excelled, a fact attributed to his teacher’s dedication and recognition of his native intelligence and abilities. Later, he attended the New Haven High School from 1866 to 1868 and then Hopkins Grammar School from 1868 to 1870, earning the distinction as the valedictorian of his class. His grades in Latin, Greek, history, and mathematics were exceptional.
In 1876, at Yale where his father was a porter, he completed his dissertation in physics, entitled “Measuring Refractive Indices,”* becoming the first African American to earn a Ph.D. His outstanding academic record was enough to earn him election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. It would take a decade before Bouchet and the other inductees could actually celebrate the honor since the Yale chapter had to complete reorganizing after more than twelve years of inactivity.
Despite all the honors and achievements, Bouchet could not hurdle the racial barrier and secure a teaching position at a university or college. In 1876, he moved to Philadelphia and began teaching at Philadelphia’s Institute for Colored Youth . There he taught chemistry and physics for the next 26 years, eventually resigning in 1902. His teaching career continued over the next year or so at Sumner High School in St.
As part of his legacy and a tribute to his accomplishments, the American Physical Society annually confers the Edward A. Bouchet Award on some of the nation’s outstanding physicists for their contribution to physics. In 1988, the Edward Bouchet Abdus Salam Institute was founded by the late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, under its founding chairperson Charles Brown.