People of Courage: Vernie Merze Tate

Abstract

Merze Tate, a historian, political author, world traveler, and philanthropist, was the first African American to graduate from Oxford University. She was born during a terrible blizzard in rural Blanchard, Michigan on February 6, 1905 to Charles and Myrtle Tate, both farmers. Her grandparents were considered black pioneers when they took advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862, allowing them to move further west from Ohio to purchase land cheaply in the predominantly white Mecosta County in Michigan.