Biography of David Blackwell David’s full name is David Harold Blackwell. He is the oldest child out of four. He was born on April 24, 1919 in Centralia, Illinois, and died on July 8, 2010 in Berkeley, California. David Blackwell is the most popular African American Mathematician. Southern Illinois was racist toward black community back then, but David said he was lucky to go to a mix school, instead of going to the only black students school. He understands algebra and trigonometry but he doesn't find them exciting like geometry, but still he came to love statistic pretty late. In 1938, he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. A year later, he got his Master of Arts in Mathematics in, and three years later, 1941, he earned his Ph.D. in
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Hence, he is the seventh African American to receive a Ph.D. in Mathematics. After completing his studies, he applied letters of application to 105 Historically Black Colleges, looking for a faculty position. The discrimination on black teachers was still strong at the time so he only got offers from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and West Virginia State College and Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia. He went to teach at Southern University for 2 years, then went teaching at Clark College for a year. He then went to teach at Howard University in Washington, D.C and became the head of Department of Mathematics which only took him three years to accomplish. Blackwell finally found his his love for Statistics when he was listening to a sponsor lecture by Abe Girshick, who was the key figure of the Stanford department . He revolutionized the way Blackwell thought about sampling, which is sampling as much as possible, until you can’t take anymore. In 1954, David took a professorship at U.C. Berkeley. In 1956, Blackwell took the chair at the Berkeley's Department of Statistics. By then, computers made such big change to the professions. People don't have to work so hard anymore
Hence, he is the seventh African American to receive a Ph.D. in Mathematics. After completing his studies, he applied letters of application to 105 Historically Black Colleges, looking for a faculty position. The discrimination on black teachers was still strong at the time so he only got offers from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and West Virginia State College and Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia. He went to teach at Southern University for 2 years, then went teaching at Clark College for a year. He then went to teach at Howard University in Washington, D.C and became the head of Department of Mathematics which only took him three years to accomplish. Blackwell finally found his his love for Statistics when he was listening to a sponsor lecture by Abe Girshick, who was the key figure of the Stanford department . He revolutionized the way Blackwell thought about sampling, which is sampling as much as possible, until you can’t take anymore. In 1954, David took a professorship at U.C. Berkeley. In 1956, Blackwell took the chair at the Berkeley's Department of Statistics. By then, computers made such big change to the professions. People don't have to work so hard anymore