Mazie O. Tyson
Yearbook photograph of a young African-American woman in 1921.
Mazie O. Tyson, from the Howard University yearbook in 1921.
DiedMarch 3, 1975
U. S. Virgin Islands
NationalityAmerican
Other namesMazie Tyson-Scott
OccupationProfessor of geography
Years active1920s-1970s

Mazie Oylee Tyson (born about 1900 – March 3, 1975) was an American geographer who taught at historically-black colleges from the 1920s into the 1970s, including over twenty years at Tennessee State College.

Early life and education

Tyson was originally from Jacksonville, Florida.[1] She attended Florida A & M College for two years, and graduated from Howard University in 1921.[2] In 1937 she earned a master's degree in geography at Ohio State University, with a thesis titled "A Florida Phosphate Landscape."[3] She did doctoral work at Syracuse University,[4] but health problems prevented the completion of her doctorate.[5]

Career

Tyson taught at Bennett College,[6] Bethune-Cookman College,[7] Florida A & M College, and Southern University, before joining the geography department at Tennessee State College in 1946.[8] She taught there until 1969,[9][10] and was considered a "legend" by colleagues for her long teaching career.[11]

During World War II, Tyson headed a panel in Leon County, Florida, to monitor black businesses' compliance with wartime price regulations.[12] She wrote about war work in articles "War and Post-War Challenges to Geographers" (1944),[13] and "What Mobilization For Peace Can Learn From Mobilization For War" (1945).[14]

Tyson was active in the Nashville branch of the American Association of University Women,[15][16] and in the sorority Zeta Phi Beta.[17] In 1954 and 1955,[18] she took leave from the college to work in the United States Virgin Islands as a teacher and consultant.[19]

Personal life

Mazie Tyson married fellow professor Aurelius Southall Scott in 1928;[1] they ran a summer camp together in Ohio, and were on the faculty together at Bethune-Cookman College,[20] before they separated in the 1930s. She retired from teaching in 1970,[21] and died from cancer and heart failure at a hospital on Saint Thomas, in the Virgin Islands, in 1975.[22]


References

  1. 1 2 "Tyson-Scott Wedding". The Evening Review. 1928-06-16. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-02-13 via Newspapers.com.
  2. The Enopron (Howard University yearbook, 1921): 36.
  3. Alumni, 1930-1939, Department of Geography, Ohio State University.
  4. "Tenn. State Teachers Study for High Degrees". Alabama Tribune. 1948-12-31. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-02-13 via Newspapers.com.
  5. Choi, Andrea. "Geography, Geographers, and the Geographies of Antiracism" (PhD thesis, Queen's University 2018): 82-83.
  6. Senior High School of Bennett College. (1926). The Bennettite. Bennett College. pp. 25.
  7. Annual Catalogue, 1930-1931 (Bethune-Cookman College 1930): 12.
  8. Monk, Janice (2004-03-01). "Women, Gender, and the Histories of American Geography". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 94 (1): 1–22. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.2004.09401001.x. ISSN 0004-5608. S2CID 144506143.
  9. "Instructor of the Month" The Meter (University of Tennessee newspaper) (May 28, 1951): 2.
  10. Bulletin 1970-1971 (Tennessee State University 1970): 19.
  11. Prunty, Merle C. (1979). "Geography in the South". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 69 (1): 54. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1979.tb01229.x. ISSN 0004-5608. JSTOR 2569547.
  12. "Negro Panel is Named". Tallahassee Democrat. May 28, 1944. Retrieved 2020-02-13 via Newspapers.com.
  13. Tyson, M. (1944). War and post-war challenges to geographers. The Quarterly Review of Higher Education among Negroes, 12(3), 160. via ProQuest.
  14. Tyson, M. (1945). What mobilization for peace can learn from mobilization for war. The Quarterly Review of Higher Education among Negroes, 13(3), 205. via ProQuest.
  15. "AAUW Plans for Year Announced". The Tennessean. 1959-10-11. p. 41. Retrieved 2020-02-12 via Newspapers.com.
  16. "AAUW Groups Will Meet This Month". Nashville Banner. 1959-11-04. p. 16. Retrieved 2020-02-13 via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Miss Tyson Rites Saturday". The Tennessean. 1975-03-06. p. 78. Retrieved 2020-02-13 via Newspapers.com.
  18. "Geography Specialist on Leave". The Tennessean. 1954-09-26. p. 26. Retrieved 2020-02-13 via Newspapers.com.
  19. Crooks, Mabel (1955-06-12). "The Week at Tennessee State". The Tennessean. p. 82. Retrieved 2020-02-13 via Newspapers.com.
  20. The Wildcat (Bethune-Cookman College 1930): 17.
  21. "Honors Set for Retiring TSU Group". The Tennessean. 1970-06-03. p. 38. Retrieved 2020-02-13 via Newspapers.com.
  22. "Death notice: Mazie O. Tyson". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1975-04-12. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-02-13 via Newspapers.com.
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