Edward Bouchet
Edward Alexander Bouchet was an African American physicist and educator and was the first AfricanAmerican to earn a Ph.D. from any American university, completing his dissertation in physics at Yale in 1876. On the basis of his academic record he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. In 1874, he had become one of the first African Americans to graduate from Yale College.
Edward Bouchet was born at home in New Haven, Connecticut, to parents William and Susan Bouchet. At that time, there were only three schools in New Haven open to black children. Bouchet was enrolled in the Artisan Street Colored School with only one teacher, who nurtured Bouchets academic abilities. He attended the New Haven High School from 1866 to 1868 and then Hopkins School from 1868 to 1870, where he was named valedictorian . He ranked sixth in his class on graduation from Yale.
Source: Wikipedia