The Merze Tate Explorers were invited to attend University of Oxford! The invite was in celebration of the renovated Bevington Road houses on Oxford’s campus. After a team of Explorers visited Oxford in 2024, they were provided the opportunity to commemorate Dr. Tate through a brick campaign. The brick not only celebrates the legacy of Tate, the first African American graduate of the university, but the legacy of the Explorers who live out her mission of success through education.

This brick purchased by our organization represents not only Dr. Tate’s historic presence on their campus as the first African American to earn a degree from University of Oxford (1935), but also for all the hundreds of young MERZE TATE EXPLORERS since 2008, who have worn her name proudly on their shirts.

Dr. Tate realized at an early age that education was the key to success. When she graduated from Western Michigan University in 1927 with the school’s highest academic record, she couldn’t get a job teaching high school in Michigan! Not Mississippi, Michigan!

But that didn’t stop her. On she went to make history as the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University, and later became a Fulbright Scholarship (Scholar) in India, where she created a photo story on the first prime minister of India for The AFRO-American Newspapers!

Not only did she go on to serve as a dean and History professor at Wayne State University, Morgan State University, Barber-Scotia College, and Crispus Attucks Medical Magnet High School, but she also retired from Howard University, where she left a legacy.

To honor Dr. Tate at Oxford makes my heart proud. As the first African American graduate of Oxford University, she blazed this trail and many others as a first African American woman graduate. #girlscan! Western Michigan University University of Oxford Howard University Harvard University are all institutions where she made history! #GoExplorers!