Dr. Phyllis Williams rose above mid-century segregation to become a groundbreaking economist and government leader

(March 30, 2024) In 1948, when Phyllis Ann Wallace earned her PhD from Yale, Black people still couldn’t eat in many restaurants or try on clothes in department stores. Women, Black and White, were shut out of workplaces or treated poorly.

With a stellar combination of intelligence, drive and compassion, Dr. Wallace rose above all of this. She spent her 40-year career as an economist, professor and government leader challenging and changing unfair and illegal practices. 

Overcoming Immense Barriers to Education 

Wallace was born in Calvert County and later attended Baltimore’s Frederick Douglass High School. Though named after an abolitionist, the school remained segregated.

Despite finishing first in her class, Wallace was not able to attend the University of Maryland, which refused to admit Black students. 

At the time, the State of Maryland offered an odd provision: Blacks who were shut out of the University of Maryland and wished to major in a subject not offered at Morgan State (the State’s historically Black College), but was available at the all-white University of Maryland, could attend an out-of-state school. The State would pay the tuition. 

Wallace entered New York University in 1939, graduating magna cum laude and as a Phi Beta Kappa with an economics degree. Over her four years amid New York’s rich cultural haven, it was said that she also acquired a life-long love of the arts. 

Credit: Phyllis Wallace and President Jimmy Carter, October 1979, Phyllis Wallace Papers, MC-0362, 27. Department of Distinctive Collections, MIT Libraries, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Phyllis Wallace and President Jimmy Carter, October 1979, Phyllis Wallace Papers, MC-0362, 27. Department of Distinctive Collections, MIT Libraries, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Moving Up and Over Barriers 

A mentor then guided her to Yale University, where she earned a master’s degree in 1944 and PhD in 1948. She was the first woman to earn a PhD in economics there. Wallace could not serve as a teaching assistant because of her race and, possibly, gender. She did, however, work as a research assistant. The Rosenwald Foundation, an eminent supporter of African American education, provided supports to her.

Now an expert in international trade, she joined the National Bureau of Economic Research as an economist/statistician, while also teaching part-time at the College of the City of New York. From 1953 to 1957, she served on the faculty of Atlanta University and, at the same time, became a senior economist for the US government. 

Forging Her Own Path in the Civil Rights Movement 

As civil rights became a crucial issue in the 1960s, Dr. Wallace moved to the newly formed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Office of Research as the Chief of Technical Studies, becoming a voice for workplace equality. 

She spearheaded a federal case involving the nation’s largest employer, AT&T, that profoundly changed inequities in the labor market at the time. The 1973 lawsuit concluded that the company had discriminated against women and minority men.

AT&T agreed to pay millions in back wages and make other pay adjustments. The verdict also brought about changes in transfer and promotion policies and recruitment criteria. She wrote about the case in her book, Equal Employment Opportunity and the AT&T Case (MIT Press, 1976).

Wallace joined the MIT Sloan School of Management faculty as a visiting professor in 1973. Her promotion to full professor in 1975 made Wallace the first woman to gain tenure at Sloan. 

A Legacy Lives Through the Generations 

In addition to her groundbreaking roles as a professor and government leader, Dr. Wallace was highly admired for mentoring, for her ability to bring people together to exchange ideas, for her integrity and for her unwillingness to speak negatively of anyone. 

When she retired in 1986, scholars in industrial and labor relations and economics from around the world gathered at MIT for a conference in her honor. In addition, the Sloan School endowed the Phyllis A. Wallace Doctoral Fellows Fund, which provides support for Blacks admitted to the School’s doctoral program, and the Phyllis A. Wallace Visiting Scholars Fund to provide support for Black visiting scholars at the school.

Dr. Phyliss Ann Wallace rose far above segregation and prejudice to right wrongs that plagued the nation in the mid-century. 

A sepia tone photo of Dr. Williams holding her book Equal Employment Opportunity and the AT&T Case

Dr. Phyllis Wallace shown holding her newly published book, “Equal Employment Opportunity and the AT&T Case” Source: Black Enterprise (1976) 

Books by Dr. Phyllis Williams

Dr. Wallace authored books that focused on advancing people who had traditionally not had opportunities to reach their highest potential. They include Pathways to Work: Employment Among Black Teenage Females (1974); Equal Employment Opportunity and the AT&T Case (1975); Women, Minorities and Employment Discrimination (1977); Black Women in the Labor Force (1982); MBAs on the Fast Track: The Career Mobility of Young Managers (1989); and Social Issues in Collective Bargaining 1950-1980: A Critical Assessment (reprinted, 2015).

Professor Phyllis Ann Wallace (second right) receives the Westerfield Award, for black economists with outstanding achievements, from the National Economic Association, on February 8, 1982. (L to R:) Dr. Bernard Anderson (NEA President), Dr. Margaret Simms (Chair), Dr. Alfred Osborne (former NEA President). Photograph courtesy of MIT Museum.<br />

Professor Phyllis Ann Wallace (second right) receives the Westerfield Award, for black economists with outstanding achievements, from the National Economic Association, on February 8, 1982. (L to R:) Dr. Bernard Anderson (NEA President), Dr. Margaret Simms (Chair), Dr. Alfred Osborne (former NEA President). Photograph courtesy of MIT Museum.

Phyliss Williams at a conference. She is th only Black person among half dozen white men seated.

International Conference on Input-Output Techniques in Geneva, with Phyllis Wallace in center, October 1961, Phyllis Wallace Papers, MC-0362, 27. Department of Distinctive Collections, MIT Libraries, Cambridge, Massachusetts

stone Entrance gate to Arbutus Memorial Park

Dr. Phyliss Wallace died unexpectedly in January 1993 and is buried in Arbutus Memorial Park. 

MIT Black History, accessed 03/08/21

Tribute to Phyliss Wallace, Institute for Work & Employment Research, accessed 03/08/21

Phyllis Ann Wallace, A Leader for Equal Opportunity, by Annette LaMond| S.M., MIT Sloan School of Management | Ph.D., Yale University, Cambridge Historical Society, accessed 03/08/21