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.
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]
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]
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]
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.
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]
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]
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]