Joseph Alphonso Pierce

While in Atlanta (1944-1946), Pierce was appointed research director of a large study of African American businesses and business opportunities sponsored by Atlanta University. He later published the results of this study and more in his book Negro Business and Business Education: Their Present and Prospective Development (1947). Although he was a talented mathematician and statistician, Joseph Pierce was most known for this work. What he found was that black owned businesses captured a very small percentage of what could be their potential patronage. He saw that 99 percent of black customers bought clothes and shoes from white-owned businesses and that only 28 percent of black people went to black-owned grocery stores. Causes for this ranged from lack of sales promotion, inadequate business training, and subpar record-keeping on the part of black business owners.

Pierce began his career at Texas College in Tyler, Texas where he was an instructor in the Mathematics Department from 1925-1927. Having played college football himself, Pierce also was an assistant coach for the football team there. He then spent two years, from 1927-1929, as a math teacher at Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta, Georgia. After receiving his master’s in 1930, Pierce took a position as a professor of mathematics at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. It was here that he began to work on his PhD. During this period, with his wife, Dr. Juanita G. Pierce, he had one son (Joseph Alphonso Pierce, Jr.). Upon earning his PhD in 1938, Joseph Pierce returned to Atlanta University where he taught math and statistics and also served as the chair of the Department of Mathematics. In 1948 Pierce moved to Texas State College for Negroes (later to become Texas Southern University) in Houston, where he was professor of mathematics from 1948–1954, head of the Mathematics Department from 1948–1957, and chair of the Division of Natural Physical Sciences. He continued to progress at the university, eventually becoming the Dean of the Graduate School in 195. Pierce continued to teach and be involved in various ways at Texas Southern for many years until 1967 when he was elected President of the University. He was also a consultant to NASA for a period of two years (1967-1968).

Joseph Alphonso Pierce, Sr. (August 10, 1902 – September 18, 1969) was an American mathematician and statistician. He was one of the first African-Americans to earn a PhD in Mathematics in the United States. He was an educator who had a long career as teacher, administrator, and researcher.

Joseph Alphonso Pierce was born August 10, 1902, in Waycross, Georgia. He was the son of William Arthur Pierce, a Methodist minister, and Fannie McGraw. Orphaned at an early age, this left his uncle, Joseph McGraw, to raise him in Waycross. He received his early education from public schools in Georgia. Pierce chose to continue his studies after graduating high school, receiving his bachelor’s degree in social science from Atlanta University in 1925. He was also a varsity football player during this time. Pierce received his master’s degree in mathematics from Atlanta University in 1930 and later a PhD from the University of Michigan in 1938. The research he conducted for his PhD was focused on the study of universe n finite populations with application to moment-function adjustments for grouped data.