On March 13th 1965, Dr. Marion Myles accepted a position at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Three months later, the vice chancellor appointed her an assistant professor of pharmacology, the first Black American on the faculty.
Her appointment came over the objections of some members of the board of trustees of the state Institutions of Higher Learning.
Prior to accepting the appointment, Myles taught biology, botany, agronomy and zoology at several universities. An expert in plant physiology, she studied the effects of drugs and hormones on plant growth. She received a Carnegie Foundation Research Grant and was awarded research fellowships at the California Institute of Technology and at the Institute of Nuclear Studies at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
The same year that the medical center appointed her, the center offered a residency slot to Dr. Aaron Shirley, the first Black resident. mississippitoday.org/2025/03/13/on-…
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