Born in Paris, Illinois in 1882, Walter Dyson was the son of Nathaniel Dyson, a laborer, and Elvira Mitchem Dyson, who died in 1892. He graduated from Fisk University before receiving a second bachelor's degree from Yale in 1905. Dyson had studied at the University of Pennsylvania in 1911 and, in 1913, received his master's in history from the University of Chicago; he also completed postgraduate work at Columbia University.
Dyson joined the history faculty of Howard University in 1905, the same year he graduated from Yale. He taught European history, civics, and ancient history in the Academy, which was a preparatory school within Howard. He was the author of several works about Howard: The Founding of Howard University, published in 1921; Founding the School of Medicine of Howard University, 1868-1873, published in 1929, and Howard University, the Capstone of Negro Education: A History, 1867-1940, published in 1941. He was one of the co-editors of the Journal of Negro History from its founding in 1916. Fellow Yale graduate and historian Charles H. Wesley was his colleague and collaborator at Howard.
Dyson died in 1958, and his wife, Mary, survived him.
Image citation: Yale College Class of 1905 class book, Yale University Library