Although he was the first African American to earn a Ph.D.
In a field of the biological sciences, Alfred Oscar Coffin ended his career as Professor of Romance Languages at Langston University in Oklahoma.
Born in Pontotoc, Mississippi on May 14, 1861, Coffin earned his bachelor’s degree at Fisk University and his master’s and Ph.D.
In biology at Illinois Wesleyan University in 1889.
Beginning in 1887, Coffin taught for two years at Alcorn Agricultural & Mechanical College in Mississippi.
From 1889 to 1895 he was Professor of Mathematics and Romance Language at Wiley University in Marshall, Texas where he found time to write a treatise on the native plants there.
Back at Alcorn A&M from 1895 to 1898 he worked as the campus disbursement agent.
From 1898 to 1909 Coffin was a public school principal in San Antonio, Texas and in Kansas City, Missouri.
Starting in 1910 for several years he worked as an advance agent for Blind Boone Concert Company, promoting the blind ragtime musician.
