William J. Bauduit: the third Black member of the AMS

William J. Bauduit
NIKH (Howard University yearbook) , Vol. 1, 1914

Alongside Oscar G. Lawless, William J. Bauduit was one of the two Black mathematicians admitted as members of the American Mathematical Society in 1921, seven years after the first Black mathematician had been admitted. In this blogpost, we will look at Professor Bauduit.

Professor Bauduit was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 13, 1879 to Ernest and Angelle (or Angel) Picou Bauduit. Information about the parents before the Civil War is hard to come by. His father may have  a free person-of-color in Jefferson township in 1850. No records about Angelle from this period have been found.

Ernest and Angelle married the year after the Civil War ended (in 1866). They had a large number of children, and William had at least four older siblings. In the first years after the war, Ernest worked as a metropolitan police officer. His employment was a reflection of changed conditions. The defeat of the Confederacy had empowered a pro-Black Republican Party which employed a number of Black men in city and state government. 

By the time Professor Bauduit was born, the Republican Party in Louisiana had collapsed and political power was firmly in the hands of a conservative Democratic Party dominated by ex-Confederates. Bauduit's father found work as a plasterer.

Bauduit was educated in the New Orleans public schools. He was fortunate as the city had excellent options for Black children. He graduated from Southern University (which ran a high school program) in 1896. He then continued living with his parents and working as a school teacher.

In 1904, Bauduit began attending the University of Chicago. He first attended the university during the summers. In 1908, he attended for the full year and graduated in June 1909. He then pursued graduate work. He was advised by William Duncan MacMillan and wrote the dissertation "Motion of a Particle Attached to a Spring." He was awarded an M.S. degree in 1911.

Bauduit moved to Washington D.C. after completing his college education. He was hired as a mathematics instructor at Howard University. By 1914, he was promoted to associate professor. His senior colleague was Kelly Miller. 

Professor Bauduit remained at Howard University for the rest of his career. He also taught at Morehouse College. He died in January 1959.

Sources

1. Year: 1930; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 0213; FHL microfilm: 2340032

2. Year: 1900; Census Place: New Orleans Ward 14, Orleans, Louisiana; Roll: 575; Page: 10; Enumeration District: 0130

3. Year: 1880; Census Place: New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana; Roll: 464; Page: 353B; Enumeration District: 086

4. Year: 1940; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: m-t0627-00566; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 1-408

5. National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: 3462; Page: 71; Enumeration District: 1-874

6. "Southern University." The Times-Democrat. June 26, 1896. p. 15. 

7. "Southern University." The Times-Picayune. November 4, 1886. p. 8. amaze

8. The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: Jefferson, Jefferson, Louisiana; Roll: 232; Page: 31a

Benjamin Lewis Waits: An AMS member in a mental hospital

The announcement of Waits' admission to the AMS
AMS Bulletin, December 1923

In September 1923, the council of the American Mathematical Society elected twenty-seven new members. These people included Benjamin Lewis Waits, a professor at Alcorn University. Although Professor Waits' election received no special attention, it was a notable event. Waits was one of the first Black men to join the AMS. 

Professor Waits was born in Alabama on March 15, 1890. According to an online family genealogy, his parents were Ben and Ann. Both Ben and Ann were born during the Civil War, likely to enslaved parents. In 1890, they were working as laborers in St. Clair County in 1890. The father, Ben, died when Waits was a young child.

Waits himself first appears in the historical record in the late 1900s as a student at the Burrell Normal School in Florence, Alabama. The school is now closed, but at the time, it was newly opened and run by a missionary society. By the time he completed school, Waits was working as a live-in domestic servant for a local journalist, M. Woodson Comper.

Student at Burrell Normal School

Waits appears to have planed on becoming a teacher. In January 1910, he passed a statewide teachers exam, one of only four African Americans to do so. However, rather than teach, he moved to D.C. to attend Howard University. He attended the teacher's college and graduated in 1914 with a B.S. degree and a teaching diploma. 

After graduating from Howard, he moved to Massachusetts to attend Clark University. He wrote the thesis "Fourier's method for the separation of the roots of an algebraic equation." For that work, he was awarded a M.A. degree in 1916.

In the first years after he got his M.A. degree, Waits remained in Massachusetts and lived in the city of Worcester. However, he enlisted in the army on July 31, 1918, after the United States entered the Great War. Waits served as a sergeant in a medical detachment that was part of the 807th Pioneer Infantry. He was sent with his until to France in early September 1918 and remained there until the war's end.

At some point in the late 1910s or early 1920s, Waits married Caroline Lassiter, a woman from North Carolina who was living in Albany, New York. She was working with her siblings and her mother, Margaret, as domestic servants for the physician, Erastus Corning. (Her father, William, died when she was young.)

Waits began working as college professor after the war. His first position was at Florida A&M University. In 1922, he left FAMU to teach at Alcorn University in Mississippi. It was during his first year at Alcorn that he was elected to AMS membership.

Waits only stayed at Alcorn for a few years. In 1924, he was hired by Wilberforce University (in Ohio) to serve as dean. His appointment marked a remarkable professional rise for Waits. In his mid-thirties, only one generation removed from enslavement in Alabama, he had completed an advanced degree and was now working as a senior college administrator. Tragically, Waits' life took a horrific turn the next year. In September 1925, he shot his wife, Caroline, with a pistol. She was seriously injured but survived. Waits told the police that he had gone insane with jealous after seeing her talking to another man. 

I have not been able to find a detailed account of the legal proceedings against Waits, but he was confined to a state hospital for the criminally insane (Lima State Mental Hospital) for a number of years. He was still confined to the hospital in 1930. While Waits was in the mental hospital, his wife returned to Albany and worked as an elevator operator. Remarkably, she remained married to Waits. 

Waits was released from the hospital in the late 1930s. However, his college career was ruined. Shortly after the shooting, Waits resigned from his position at Wilberforce, although this was a ceremonial gesture since his confinement in a state hospital rendered his continued employment impossible. 

Waits and his wife moved to Albany, New York. Waits first found work as a teacher, but he spent most of his time in the city working as a mail supply clerk for the Department of Labor. On January 22, 1967, while he and his wife were still living in Albany, Waits died. He was buried in St. Agnes Cemetery in the village of Menands (near Albany).

Sources

1. Year: 1910; Census Place: Florence Ward 4, Lauderdale, Alabama; Roll: T624_21; Page: 14a; Enumeration District: 0061; FHL microfilm: 1374034

2. Year: 1930; Census Place: Bath, Allen, Ohio; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0007; FHL microfilm: 2341480

3. United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm

4. Year: 1880; Census Place: Mundine, St Clair, Alabama; Roll: 31; Page: 93C; Enumeration District: 119

5. "Wilberforce University Instructor Held on Charge of sooting Wife." Pittsburgh Courier, September 19, 1925. p. 1. 

6. "Is Asked to Resign." September 11, 1925. p. 1. 

7. "Lauderdale Teachers." The Birmingham News, January 29, 1910. p. 2. 

8. "Indict Negro For Shooting At Wife." The Daily Times. January 11, 1938. p. 10. 

9. National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Albany, Albany, New York; Roll: 1739; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 63-203

10. Albany, New York, City Directory, 1939

11. Albany, New York, City Directory, 1929

Oscar G. Lawless

Oscar G. Lawless
Jet Jun 26, 1969

Oscar Godfrey Lawless was born on December 12, 1894 in Thibodaux, Louisiana to Harriet Dunn and Alfred Lawless. His family moved to New Orleans when Oscar was young, and he grew up in the city. His father was a congregationalist minister and founded the Beecher Memorial Congregational Church. He also worked as a school principal. His older brother was the medical doctor, Theodore K. Lawless.

For school, Oscar took college preparatory classes at Straight University (now Dillard University). He then went to Alabama to attend Talladega College. His brother Theodore also attended the college at the same time. Oscar graduated from Talladega in 1917. 

Oscar's studies were interrupted by the First World War. He received officer training at the Tuskegee Institute and served as a 1st Lieutenant in the 350th Machine Gun Battalion. 

After the war (in fall 1919), Lawless returned to Talladega and served as the professor of mathematics and physics. Also at the college was John Tate Cater who served as dean and professor of education. In December 1921, Lawless elected to membership in the American Mathematical Society. At the time, only one Black mathematician, John Cromwell, was an AMS member. Professor Cater was elected to membership a few years later, in 1926.

While receiving military training, he married Maxie Sadie Howes. It appears that their marriage failed, although I have been unable to any details. While Maxie retained her married name "Lawless," by 1930, she was living apart from Oscar and working in the garment industry in New York City. 

Oscar himself left Talladega College around 1930. He moved to Atlanta to attend Atlanta University. He supported himself by teaching, and in 1932, he received an M.A. degree. His degree was awarded for a masters thesis in education. Titled "A Statistical Analysis of the Achievement of the Atlanta University College Students," the thesis is a statistical study comparing student performance on a standardized test with their performance at the university. 

After Atlanta University, Oscar moved to Austin, Texas to teach at Samuel Huston College (now Huston–Tillotson University). He remained at Huston until the 1950s. He moved to Chicago and worked in real estate. Oscar died of a heart attack in 1969.

The collected papers of his father, Alfred Lawless, are held by the Amistad Research Center. The collection includes a biography of Alfred that Oscar wrote. 

Sources

1. Herald and Review, 13 Feb 1918, p. 8.

2. Our Mountain Home, 20 Mar 1918, p. 8.

3. "Texans in Chicago." The Pittsburgh Courier 20 Sep 1952, p. 9.

4. "Dr. Thurman Sees Need For Negro Colleges." The Call, 6 Jul 1956, p. 2.

5. "Lawless, Retired Math Teacher, Dies of Heart Attack." Jet Jun 26, 1969. p. 22.

6. "Oscar Lawless Expires in Austin, Texas." The Louisiana Weekly, Jun 14, 1969. p. 6.

7. Year: 1910; Census Place: New Orleans Ward 7, Orleans, Louisiana; Roll: T624_521; Page: 4a; Enumeration District: 0118; FHL microfilm: 1374534

8. Year: 1930; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 2417; FHL microfilm: 2340154

9. Year: 1940; Census Place: Austin, Travis, Texas; Roll: m-t0627-04149; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 227-39