Helen Clarissa Morgan

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Helen Clarissa Morgan (February 25, 1845 – May 23, 1914) was an American teacher from New York. She became the first woman to be appointed professor of Latin in a US coeducational college.

Morgan was born in Masonville, New York. When she was 12, her family moved to Oberlin, Ohio. She finished Oberlin College in 1866 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and in 1911 Oberlin awarded her an honorary Master of Arts degree.

After graduation, she taught three years in Michigan. In 1869 she went to Nashville, Tennessee to teach Classical Studies at Fisk University, which was then housed in Federal Hospital Buildings. W. E. B. Du Bois was one of her students in Latin.

Although she received an offer to teach at Vassar College, she chose to stay at Fisk for 38 years to work with African Americans. She urged better teacher training and published a 1911 article on the subject, based on her Fisk experiences.

In recognition of her long service, the Carnegie Foundation granted her a retiring allowance on June 7, 1907. Helen Clarissa Morgan died on May 23, 1914.