She was not allowed to teach, was unable to attend professor Robert Lee Moore's lectures, and could not join off-campus meetings because they were held in a coffee shop which could not, under Texas law, serve African Americans.

She wrote, "My mathematical isolation was complete", and that "it took a faith in scholarship almost beyond measure to endure the stress of earning a Ph.D. degree as a Black, female graduate student".

[4] She participated in civil rights demonstrations, and her friends and colleagues Etta Falconer and Lee Lorch wrote on her death that "With skill, integrity, steadfastness and love she fought racism and sexism her entire life, never yielding to the pressures or problems which beset her path".

[8] Nonetheless, her research was sufficiently innovative for her to qualify for federal grants to support her work,[2] and the latter paper was published in the prestigious Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society.

[2] Malone-Mayes had a successful, lengthy career and served on several boards and committees of note, retiring in 1994 due to ill health.

[10] She served on boards of directors for Cerebral Palsy, Goodwill Industries, and Family Counseling and Children and was on the Texas State Advisory Council for Construction of Community Mental Health Centers.

[1] Vivienne Malone-Mayes was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and served as President of Waco Alumnae Chapter.