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The first recipients
ofthe Presidential
Awards for Excellence
in Science, Mathematics,
and
Engineering
Mentoring.
At the White House in September 1996, the honorees included ten individuals and six institutions that have been
exemplary in their encouragement of minorities, women, and people with disabilities to pursue careers in scientific and technical fields. President Clinton noted that they would "serve as examples to their colleagues and will be leaders in the national
effort to train the next century's scientists, mathematicians, and engineers."
1 9 P E I E TA A A D F R EXCELLENCE I SCIENCE,
9 6 R SD N I L W R S O
N
M T E A I S A D E GN E I G M N O I G
A H M TC , N N I E RN E T R
N
INDIVIDUALS
Martha G. Absher, Duke University, Durham, NC
Howard G. Adams, National Institute on Mentoring,
Georgia Institute of Tfechnology, Atlanta, GA
Diola Bagayoko,
Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA
Joaquin Bustoz, Arizona State University, Tfempe, AZ
Carlos G. Gutierrez, California State University-Los
Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Janet S. Herman, University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, VA
Susan J. S. Lasser, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Melvin B. Robin, Science High School, Newark, NJ
Walter S. Smith, University of Akron, Akron, OH
Richard A. Tapia, Rice University, Houston, TX
126 Science and Technology Shaping the Twenty-First Century
INSTITUTIONS
• Columbia University Double Discovery Center,
New York, NY
• Dartmouth College Women in Science Project,
Hanover, NH
• National Action Council for Minorities in
Engineering, Inc. (NACME), New York, NY
• New Mexico MESAL, Inc., Albuquerque, NM
• Oregon Graduate Institute of Science &
Technology Saturday Academy Program,
Portland, OR
* University of Maryland Baltimore County,
Baltimore, MD
�Clinton Presidential Records
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A R E P O R T TO T H E C O N G R E S S
Science and Technology
Shaping the Twenty-First Century
Executive Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy
�IT :•
THE
A F R I C A N
AAAERI
JJlfl
SEVENTH EDfTlON
Formerly
The
Negro
Almanac
L. Mpho Mabunda,
Editor
Foreword by
Chuck Stone
Walter Spearman Professor
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
GALE
DETROIT • NEW YORK • TORONTO • LONDON
�1
1
^
Science and Technology
• Early African American Inventors • Early African,American Scientists
• African Americans in Medicine • African Americans in Air and Space
• Modern Contributions to Science and Technology • Discovery Gatekeepers
by LornaM. Mabunda
America's earliest African American scientists and
6-.. • inventors are largely unknown—their contributions to
America buried in anonymity. While Benjamin
Banneker's eighteenth-century successes in timepieces and urban planning are known and applauded,
numerous achievements of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century blacks in architecture, agriculture, and
masonry can not be identified. While historians increasingly recognize that blacks had a significant
impact on the design and construction of plantations
and public building in the South and that rice farming
in the Cardlinas might not have been possible without
blacks, the individuals who spearheaded these accomplishments remain unknown.
One of the earliest stars of science was Benjamin
Banneker, a free black who lived in the 1700s. Considered thie first black scientist, Banneker's true forte lay in
the areas of mathematics and astronomy, both of which
he cultivated during his friendship with an influential
white Quaker neighbor. In 1754, Banneker constructed
what has been considered the first clock made in the
United States. Later, Banneker and the Quaker's son
were selected to survey the land that evolved into
Washington, DC. Thus; not only was Bannker the first
black to receive a presidential appointment, he was one
of the first African American civil engineers. In the early
1790s, his almanac—a year-long calendar loaded with
information such as the best planting times—was published with much success. New editions were issued for
a succession of years.
In 1790, the U.S. govemment passed the U.S. Patent
Act, legislation that extended patent rights to inventors,
including free blacks. Slaves would not have this right
Perhaps in science more than in other areas, African until thie passage of the 14th Amendment. In one of
Americans have been afforded few sanctioned opportu- history's most absurd bureaucratic fiats, slaves could
neither be granted patents nor could they assign patents
"^nities to offer contributions. However, sheer will and
to their masters. The underlying theory was that since
l^exceeding intelligence helped a mass of individuals
^'igjbring their ideas and dreams into the light, creating and slaves were not citizens they could not enter into conv / perfecting them almost as if racial barriers did not exist, tracts with their owners or the government. As a result,
the efforts of slaves were dismissed, or when accepted,
lit; : The industrial revolution swept blacks along just as
^ • i. dramatically as it did the white population. Though not credited to their masters. One can only speculate on the
extent- to which slaves were active in invention. For
g At.all of them became household names, African Ameri| li cans have made their mark in science and technology. example, Joe Anderson, a slave, was believed to have
I ' ^ f o r example, when Alexander Graham Bell invented the played a major role in the creation of a grain harvester
1 ^telephone, he chose Lewis Latimer, a black man, to draft his master Cyrus McCormick was credited with invent|l2||tixe plans.Previously, Latimer had been a member ofthe ing, but available records are insufficient to determine
the degree to which Anderson was involved. Similarly,
^>o}|Edison Pioneers, a group of inventors who worked for
Beiyamin Montgomery, a slave belonging to Confederg||?Tiomas Edison from 1883 to the early 1900s.
• EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN
INVENTORS
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•
African American
Science and Technology
on other trains while in motion. He was also responsible
for what later became known as the trolley, when in
1888, he produced an overhead electrical power supply
system for streetcars and trains. A prolific inventor,
Woods, known as "The Black Edison," created mote
than 50 valuable inventions, including an airbrake, which
he eventually sold to George Westinghouse, arid
incubator.
ate President Jefferson Davis is thought to have concocted an improved boat propeller. Since the race of
patent-seekers was rarely noted and other black inventions such as ice cream, created by Augustus Jackson of
Philadelphia in 1832, were simply never patented, one
cannot be sure how many inventions were made by free
blacks either.
Thefirstfreeblacks to have their inventions recorded were Thomas L. Jennings, whose dry-cleaning methodology received patent protection in 1821, and Henry
Blair, who invented a seed planter in 1834. Free black
Norbert Rillieux patented his sugar refining evaporator,'
thus revolutionizing the industry. The son of a French
planter and afreeblack woman, Rillieux left his home in
New Orleans to study engineering in Paris. After teaching mathematics there for a while, he created his vacuum pan evaporator. With his invention, a single person
could do work that once required several people working at once. He returned to the United States and
became wealthy as the device was implemented in
sugar refineries in his home state and abroad in Cuba
and Mexico.
Ainu^c^'
Jan Matzeliger came to the United StatesfromSouth
America in 1877. Living in Lynn, Massachusetts,, he
obtained work in a shoe factory. There he witnessed the
tedious process by which shoe soles were attached to
shoe uppers by workers known as hand lasters. For six
months he secretly labored at inventing a machine to,
automate the work. Unsatisfied with his original design,
he spent several more years tweaking and perfecting his
creation so that by the time he was granted a patent in
1883, the equipment was so successful that manufacturers the world over clamored for the gadgetry.
:
Progress has been a giftfromwomen as well as men.
For example, Sarah Goode is credited with creatMg ai
folding cabinet bed in 1996; Sarah Boone invented the
In 1848,freeblack Lewis Temple invented the toggle- ironing board in 1892; and photographer Claytonia
harpoon for killing whales, a m^or industry at the time.
Dortictis was granted several patents that were conTemple's invention almost completely replaced the type cerned with photographic equipment and developing
of harpoon formerly used because it greatly diminished solutions as well as a shoe dye. But Madame C. J.
the mammal's ability td escape after being hooked. Prior Walker, often, regarded only as an entrepreneur, was
to the Civil War, Henry Boyd created an improved
one of the most successful female inventors. She develbedframtel and James Foten, one of the few blacks that oped an entire line of hair care products and cosmetics
from era to gain extreme wealth from an invention,
for blacks, claiming that herfirstidea had come to her in
produced a device that helped guide ship sails. He used
a dream.
...
the money he earned in to build a sail factory.
During the next few years, Garret Morgan patented a
The Reconstruction era unleashed a creativity that
succession of products, including a hair straightening
had been suppressed in blacks. Between 1870 and 1900,
solution that was still a best-seller in as late as the
a time when nearly 80 percent of African American
1970s; a gas mask, or "breathing device" for firefighters,
adults in the United States were illiterate, blacks were
and an improved traffic signal. Morgan tried to pass
awarded several hundred patents. Many ofthe grantees
himself off as Native American, but once his identity as a
were self-taught such as Elijah McCoy. Working as a
black man was discovered several of his purchase orlocomotivefiremanon a Michigan line, his job was to
ders were canceled.
lubricate the hot steam engines duringfrequentlyschedNonetheless, the early inventors paved the way for
uled train stops necessitated by the procedure. After
future African Americans. All these men as well as the
years of work, in 1872, McCoy perfected and patented
countless unknown ones were forced to endure the
an automatic lubricator that regularly supplied oil, even
as a train was in motion. The effect on the increasingly byproducts of racism- Whites were oftentimes hesitant
important railway system was profound as conductors
to buy black inventions unless the smell of eventual
were no longer forced to make oiling stops. McCoy
monetary gains was too strong. McCoy, Woods,
adapted his invention for use on ships and in factories. several others died poor, although their creations sold
When copycats tried to steal his thunder, the phrase
like wildfire.
"the real McCoy" came into vogue.
In 1884, Granville T. Woods invented a steam-boiler
furnace in his Cincinnati electrical engineering shop.
Three years later, Woods patented an "induction telegraphy" or synchronous multiplex railroad telegraph that
allowed train personnel to communicate with workers
• EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN
SCIENTISTS
The contributions of African American scientists are
better known than those of black inventors, partly
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African American Almanac
•
1057
ever recipient of a Spingam Medal in 1915, his first
paper was published as "The Relation of First Cleavage
Plane to the Entrance Point of the Sperm" in 1912. The
work showed how the location of cell division in the
marine wotm Nereis is determined by the sperm's entry
point on an egg. Teaching at Howard for several years,
Just had a tenuous relationship with the school, paving
the way for him to accept an offer to conduct research at
the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology in Berlin, Germany. The first American to be invited to the intema.tionallyrespected institution, he remained there from
1929 to 1933, at which point the Nazi regime was surging
to power. Because he preferred working abroad to
being shut out of the best laboratories in the United
States on the basis of race, Just spent the rest of his
career in France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
Blacks have had successes in the hard sciences,
engineering, and mathematics as well. In 1876, Edward
Bouchet became the first African American to earn a
doctorate from a university in the United States, when
he acquired a Ph. D in physics from Yale. In the twentieth
century, Elmer Samuel Imes, husband of Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen, received a doctorate in
physics from the University of Michigan in 1918. In his
dissertation, Imes took the works of white scientists
Albert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford, and Niels Bohr, one
step further, definitively establishing that quantum theory
applied to the rotational states of molecules. His efforts
would later play a role in space science, thus making
Imes thefirstAfrican American astro-industrial physicist
George Washington Carver
because of the recognition awarded to George Washington Carver, an agriculturalist, who, incidentally, refused
Chemist Percy Julian carved a brilliant career for
to patent most of his inventions. Bom into slavery in
himself after obtaining a doctorate from Switzerland's
1864, Carver was the first black to graduate from Iowa
University of Vienna in 1931. His specialty was creating
Agricultural State College, where he studied botany and synthetic versions of expensive drugs. Much of his work
agriculture. One year after earning a master's degree,
later in life was conducted at his Julian Research InstiCarver joined the Tuskegee Institute's agriculture detute in Franklin Park, Illinois. In the 1940s, another
partment In his role as department head, he engineered scientist, Beryamin Peery, switched his focusfromaeroa number of experimental fanning techniques that had
nautical engineering to physics while still and underpractical applications for fanners in the area. His ideas, graduate at the University of Minnesota After garnering
from crop rotation to replenish nutrient-starved soil to
a Ph.Dfromthe University of Michigan, Peery went on
his advocacy of peanuts as a cash crop, Carver left an
to a lengthy career teaching astronomy at Indiana Uniindelible mark in hisfield.An inventor at heart, he was - versify, the University of Illinois, and Howard University.
behind the genesis of innumerable botanical products,
Between 1875 and 1943, only eight blacks were awardby-products, and even recipes. Recognition of his efed doctorates in pure mathematics. One, David Blackwell,
forts came in several forms, including induction into
became the first black tenured professor at the UniverEngland's Royal Society of Arts and Manufacturing and
sity^ of California at Berkeley in 1955. An expert in
Commerce in 1916. In 1923, he received an NAACP
statistics and probabihty, he has been a trailblazer
Spingam Medal. Six years after his death, in 1949,
despite a racially motivated setback he incurred soon
Carver was the subject of a U.S. Postal Stamp.
after completing his doctoral work at the University of
Illinois. Nominated for a Rosenwald fellowshipfromthe
Born approximately ten years before Carver earned
Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University,
his bachelor's degree, Ernest Everett Just was a pioBlackwell was rejected because of his race. Undaunted,
neering marine biologist who had graduated magna
he went on to become the only African American mathecum laude from Dartmouth College in 1907. The first1057
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•
Afrvcan American MmaAae
Science and Technology
nia For the next 50 years she devoted her life to
improving the lot of the poor. Her positions included
performing a residency at the New York Infirmary for
Women and Children and running Washington, DC's
Govemment House for Children and Old Women and
Philadelphia's Woman's Directory, a medical aid center.
In 1867, Susan McKinney Steward began studying at
the New York Medical College for Women/Three years
later she earned the distinction of being the, third black
female physician. Practicing in New York State, she
specialized in homeopathic treatments and had black
and white patients of both genders as chents. 'Afto:.
opening a second office ih New York City, she helped :
cofound the Brooklyn Woman's Homeopathic Hospital
and Dispensary. She also served at the Brooklyn Honie
for Aged Colored People. A true humanitarian, Steward ,
vigorously supported women's suffrage movement and
conducted missionary work with her second husband, a
chaplain for the Buffalo Soldier regiment. She ended her
career by taking on the role of school doctor at
Wilberforce University.
Dr. Percy Julian
matician to be elected into the National Academy of
Sciences.
• AFRICAN AMERICANS IN MEDICINE
The medical profession has spawned a number of
African Americans of high stature. As early as the 1860s,
blacks had entered medical schools in the North and
had gone on to practice as full-fledged physicians. In
fact, during the Civil War, Dr. Alexander T. Augusta was
named head of a Union army hospital and Rebecca Lee became the first female African American doctor by
attending the New England Female Medical College in
Boston. She was able to attend on a scholarship she
received from Ohio Senator Beryamin Wade, an abolitionist. She used her schooling to provide health care to
former slaves in the former confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia Her 1883 Book of Medical Discourses
taught women how to address their own health issues as
well as those of their children.
Rebecca J. Cole was the second black woman to
become a physician and the first African American
graduate of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylva-
,In 1868, Howard University opened its College of
Medicine, the first black medical school in the countiy.
The school nearly failedfiveyears later when monetary
problems arose and salaries for faculty were unavailable. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Charles Parvis, who
convinced the school to let him and his peers continue
teaching on a nonpaid basis, the school survived the
crisis. Parvis was later appointed chief surgeon of Washington, DC's Freedman's Hospital, a black institution, by
: U.S. president Chester Arthur. Parvis was thus the first
African American to run a civilian hospital. He did
until 1894, when he began a private practice.
Meanwhile, Nashville's Meharry Medical College had
emerged in 1876. Despite the decidedly low number of
jobs for African American physicians who were routinely turned away from nearly every facUity other than
Freedman's Hospital, the school was a welcome addition to the slowly developing progress sought by black
physicians, including Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who
replaced Parvis at Freedman's. Williams restored Freedman's to good health through internships, better nurses'
training, and the addition of horse-drawn ambulances.
Williams had graduated from the Chicago Medical
College in 1883 and entered into private practice almost
immediately. Business was slow until 1890, when he
met Emma Reynolds, an aspiring black nurse, whose
skin color had kept her from gaining admission to any of
the nursing schools in Chicago. Inspired by her unfortunate dilemma, Williams decided to operate his own
hospital in hopes of initiating his own program for
aspiring nurses. With 12 beds, Provident Hospital be-
1058
�Science and Technology
African American Almanac
Forces. Unfortunately racism reared its ugly head againblack donors were first completely excluded from the
program and later were only allowed to donate to other
black servicemen. Frustrated, Drew withdrew from the
program, briefly resuming his teaching career at Howard before joining the staff of Freedman's Hospital as
medical director.
came the first black-operated facility in the United
States, and Reynolds was the first to enroll in Williams'sclasses. Near, the end of his career, Williams was appointed the first African American associate surgeon at
Chicago's St Luke Hospital and later was the only black
charter member of the American College of Surgeons.
During his career, Williams helped convince 40 hospitals to treat black patients.
/
Howard continued developing new talents, however.
Dr. Roland Scott, a physician at Howard University's
College of Medicine, became a pioneer in the study and
treatment of sickle cell anemia His research was pivotal
in drawing public attention to the disorder and prompting the U.S. govemment to devote money to more
extensive study. Under the Sickle Cell Anemia Control
Act passed in 1972, Congress forced the National Institutes of Health to set up treatment centers for patients.
Scott was named director of the program that involved
screening as well as treatment for those already afflicted.
Blacks in the South also received improved care in
the late 1890s thanks to a dedicated black physician. In
1893, Alice Woodby McKane and her spouse, also a
doctor, founded the first black-run health care center—
a hospital, dispensary, and nursing school—in Savannah, Georgia. McKane had obtained her medical degree
one-year earlier form the Woman's Medical College of
Pennsylvania Later the couple set up shop in Monrovia,
Liberia, repeating their U.S. accomplishments:
Progress moved westward as another black woman
used her training to benefit the region's black population though her patients transcended all racial barriers.
From 1902 until nearly 50 years later, Denver's "Baby
Doctor," Justina.Ford, proudly served her community
as the only black physician in Colorado. An obstetrician,
she delivered more than 7,000 babies, making house
calls whenever necessary.
Back East, Freedman's was the training ground for
future head trauma authority Dr. Louis Wright, a Harvard Medical School graduate whose high academic
standing meant nothing to Boston area hospitals that
refused to hire blacks. When World War I erupted,
Wright enlisted and found himself in charge of his unit's
surgical ward. After the war, Wright, who had received a
Purple Heart, became the first black physician to work
in a New York City hospital when he was appointed to
Harlem Hospital.in 1919. Later he became directory of
surgery, president ofthe medical board, and was admitted to the American College of Surgeons. Four years
before his death in 1952, he founded the Cancer Research Foundation at Harlem Hospital. The son of two
physicians, his father and his stepfather, the latter of
whom was the first black graduate of Yale Medical
School, Wright had two daughters who continued the
family legacy by becoming doctors.
An almost legendary legacy was created by Dr. Charles
R. Drew, a star high school athlete whose interest lay in
medicine. A pathologist and expert on blood transfusions, Drew discovered that blood plasma was easier to
store than whole blood. His experiments helped him
become the first African American to receive a medical
doctorate in 1940. During World War II, he helped Great
Britain develop a national blood collection program and
was later asked to do the same for the U.S. Armed
i
1059 .
• AFRICAN AMERICANS IN AIR AND
SPACE
In 1920, Texan Bessie Coleman learned toflyat the
ficole d'Aviation des Freres in France following a string
of rejections from aviation schools in the United States.
Having completed seven months of instruction and a
rigorous qualifying exam, she earned her international
aviator's license from the Federation Aeronautique
Internationale the following year and went on to study
further with aircraft designer Anthony H. G. Fokker.
Known to an admiring public as "Queen Bess," Bessie
Coleman was the first black woman ever to fly an
airplane, the first African American to earn an international pilot's license, and the first black female stunt
pilot. During her brief yet distinguished career as a
performanceflier,she appeared at air shows and exhibitions across the country, earning wide recognition for
her iaerial skill, dramatic flair, and tenacity. The tragic
demise of the professional aviatrix occurred in 1926,
when she was scheduled to parachute jump from a
speeding plane at 2,500 feet. Ten minutes after take-off,
however, the plane careened wildly, out of control,,
flipping over and dropping Coleman, who plunged 500
feet tb her death. Though he remained in the aircraft, the
pilot, too, was instantly killed as the plane crashed to
the ground. Later, a service wrench mistakenly left
behind in the engine was found to have been the cause
of the accident.
Six years later, in 1932, pilot James Herman Banning
and mechanic Thomas C. AllenflewfromLos Angeles to
New York City in 41 hours and 27 minutes. The transcontinental flight was followed by the first round-trip
1059
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African American Almanae^''-
Science and Technology
trajiscontinental flight the next year. That feat was
accomplished by Albert Ernest Forsythe and Charles
Alfred Anderson, who flew from Atlantic City to Los
Angeles and back in 11 days, foreshadowing the advent
of commericial flight
Wiila Brown-Chappell became the first black woman
to hold a commercial pilot's license in the United States
in 1934. Also the first African American woman to.
ascend to the rank of lieutenant, which she did as a
member of the Civil Air Patrol Squadron; Brown-Chappell
founded the National Airmen's Association of America,
the first aviators group for blacks. With her husband,
Cornelius R. Coffey, she established the first blackowned flying school—Coffey School of Aeronautics—
and the first African American-owned school to receive
certification from the Civil Aviation Authority. BrownChappeU became the first African American member of
the Federal Aviation Agency's Women's Advisory Council in 1972.
The second African American woman to earn a full
commercial pilot's license was Janet Harmon Bragg, a
Georgian nurse who took an interest inflyingwhen she
began dating Johnny Robinson, one of the first black
aviation instructors. The first woman of any race to be
admitted to Chicago's Curtiss Wright Aeronautical University, she was initially denied her commercial license
despite having successfully fulfilled all preliminary requirements, including the airborne portion of the test.
Her white instructor from the Federal Aviation Administration made it quite clear, however, that he would not
grant a license to a black woman. Rather than give up,
Bragg merely tested again with another instructor the
same year and was granted her license in 1942. Along
with a small group of black aviation devotees, she
formed the Challengers Air Pilots Association (CAPA).
Together, members of CAPA opened an airport in Robins, Illinois, the first owned and operated by African
Americans.
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Air Force
MEyor Robert H. Lawrence thus became thefirstAfrican'
American astronaut a few years later. A doctor of nuclear chemistry, Lawrence was killed in a plane crash in
December of 1967, just six months after his selection by
NASA. Blacks would not make in-roads in space until
the genesis, of the space shuttle program. Grounded
African American scientists were prevalent, however
For example, Katherine Johnson joined the National
Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, the precursor tb
NASA, in 1953. Initially all she was asked to do was basic
number crunching, but, in a kind of fluke, she spent a
short period filling in at the Flight Research Divisioit'
There her valued interpretation of data helped in the
making of prototype spacecraft, and she soon developed into a sage aerospace technologist. She developed,
trajectories for the Apollo moon-landing project
devised emergency navigational methods for astronauts.
She retired in 1986.
Emergencies of another sort have been tackled by air
forceflightsurgeon Vance Marchbanks, whose research
showed that adrenaline levels could affect the exhaustion level of flight crews. His work brought him to the
attention of NASA, and he. became a medical observer
for NASA's Project Mercury. Along with several other
personnel scattered about the globe, Marchbanks, stationed in Nigeria, was responsible for mbhitoring pioneering white astronaut John Glenn's vital signs as he
orbited the earth in 1962. Later, Marchbanks received
the civilian post of chief of environmental health services for United Aircraft Corporation, where he had a hand
in designing the space suit and life-support systems
used in the Apollo moon shot.
Also specializing in design, aeronautical test engineer Robert E. Shumey spent nearly his entire career,
from 1968 to 1990, at the Marshall Space Flight Center,
specializing in design utility. His products included
refuse disposal units that stored solids in the bottom
and liquid in tubes to prevent any materialsfromfloatOther black notables in the field of aviation include) ing openly and contaminating an entire cabin. The units
Perry H. Young, who, in 1957 became thefirstblack pilot . were used in the Apollo program, Skylab, and on the
for a scheduled passenger commercial airline; New
first space shuttle missions. He also crafted strong, yet
York Airways; Otis B. Young, Jr., who, in 1970, was the lightweight aluminum tires for the lunar rover. Much of
first African American pilot of a jumbo jet; and former -his experimentation was conducted on KC-135
naval pilot Jill Brown, who became the first black
planes in order to achieve the condition of "weighflessness"
female to pilot for a mqjor airline in 1987.
Assertiveness enabled 0. S. Williams to bring forth
Military men were the first blacks to enter into the
his own achievements. In 1942, Wilhams talked his way
line of space exploration. In 1961, U.S. Air Force Capinto employment at Republic Aviation as part of the
tain Edward Dwight was invited by President John F.
technical staff. Better known as "Ozzie," he took the ,
experience he earned there 15 NASA contractor Grumman
x
Kennedy to apply to test-pilot school. Two years later,
Dwight was in the midst of spaceflight training when Corporation. The small rocket engines he codeveloped
Kennedy was assassinated. Without the president's sup- saved the lives of the Apollo 13 astronauts when the
ship's main rocket exploded duringflightin 1970.
port, ,Dwight was pretty much ignored by National
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African American Almanac
Three missions later, George Carruthers, a Naval
Research Laboratory astrophysicist designed the farultravidlet camera/spectograph for use on Apollo 16:
<: The semiautomatic device was able to photograph deep
space—regions too far to be captured by regular cameras^-once set up on the surface of the moon. Carruthers,
who earned a Ph.D in aeronautical and astrpnautical
engineering from the University of Illinois in 1964, was
granted his first patent in 1969, for an electromagnetic
radiation image converter. He was only 25 years old;
1
1
With a 1965 doctorate in atomic and molecular physicsfromHoward University, Carruther's contemporary,
George E. Alcorn, has been one of the most prominent
people working with semiconductors and spectrometers.
By the early 1990s, he had eight patents to his name,
including secret projects concerning missile systems:
In a less clandestine fashion, aerospace engineer
Christine Darden has been a leading NASA researcher in
supersonic and hypersonic aircraft. Her main goal has
been the reduction of sonic boom, a phenomenon that
creates an explosive burst of sound that can traumatize
. those on the ground. Darden works at manipulating an
aircraft's wing or the shape of its nose, to try to control
the feedback produced by air waves resulting from a
plane's flight
Dealing with people rather than machinery, directory
of psychophysiology at NASA's Ames Research Center,
Patricia Cowlings credentials are impressive; her postdoctoral work has. touched upon such fields as aerospace medicine and bioastronauticsi Since the late 1970s,
. she has assisted astronauts by teaching them autogenic
'ti: •-•
-j feedback—how to impose mind over matter when zero
ravity wreaks havoc with one's system. By studying
||. ; Physical and emotional problems that arise in such a
fffJC setting,- she cah seek the cause and prescribe a therapy
to alleviate stress. She was also the first woman of any
^••.j?'iace in the United States to receive astronaut training.
f p | T h e s e individuals are joined by numerous others in
S^ptthefieldof aviation and spaceflight,including chemical
fjpplwgmeer Henry Allen, Jr., a liquid and solid rocket fuel
|j£"^'apeciaiist; missle expert and inventor extraordinaire
t Otis Boykin; environmental health office. Julian Earls;
.>ju ••(••! aerospace technologist Isabella J. Coles; astrodynamicist'
^ . Robert A. Gordon; and operations officer Isaac Gillam,
-;' \ IV, to name a few. Once the space shuttle program began
i V : in earnest, however, African Americans also took to the
>> skies.
?
;
;'v Travelingjin the space shuttle Challenger, U.S. Air
Force Colonel Guion "Guy" Bluford was the first black
'Iv'ijS-;•. ^ i space, where he coordinated experiments and
J&^was in charge of deploying satellites. After his first
"femission in 1983, Bluford participated in three more. The
111
• 1061
second African American in space, Ronald McNair, was
aboard the tragic Challenger flight pf 1986; his second
trip on the shuttle. The vehicle exploded 73 seconds
after liftoff, killing all seven crew members. Charles
Bolden's first mission was aboard the 1986flightof the
shuttle Columbia. He has also flown on the Discovery.
The first African American to pilot a space shuttle was
Frederick Gregory, who did so in 1985, on his very first
journey to outer space, A veteran pilot of both helicopters and airplanes, Gregory became an astronaut in
1978. Gregory also made history on his fourth flight,
when he commanded the first mission comprised of
Russians and Americans. Mae Jemison went into space
as a science specialist in 1992's joint U.S.-Japanese
Spacelab-J project on the shuttle Endeavor. The following year, Bernard Harris took off in the shuttle Columbia. He served as a mission specialist in Spacelab-D2
alongside Germans and Americans.
• MODERN CONTRIBUTIONS TO
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The achievements of black inventors and scientists
of the mid- to late twentieth century have been ob^
scured by reasons more complex than blatant racial
prejudice, among them the advent of govemment and
corporate research and development teams. Such work,
whether contracted or direct, often precludes individual
recognition, regardless of a person's race. Nonetheless,
in the corporate world as well as in academia, African
American scientists and engineers play a substantial
role in the development of solid state devices, highpowered and ultra fast lasers, hypersonic flight—two to
three thousand miles per hour—and elementary particle science. Black engineers employed by NASA in
managerial and research positions have made and continue to make considerable contributions.
African American manufacturing and servicing firms
in various computer and engineering areas are sprouting and. blossoming rapidly. For example, black entrepreneur Marc Hannah has made a niche for himself in
the field of computer graphics as confounder of Silicon
Graphics Incorporated. Principal scientist and vice president of the innovative company, Hannah has adapted
his electrical engineering and computer science knowhow to the medium of motion pictures since 1982. His
computer-generated, 3-D special effects have been
featured in such msgor films as Terminator 2 (1991),
Aladdin (1992), and Jurassic Park (1993).
Academia has more black science and technology
faculty members, college presidents, and school of engineering deans than in the past Many of these academics
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African American Almanac -
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Astronauts Guion Bluford, Ronald McNair, and Frederick Gregory, 1978.
are serving in the country's most prestigious institutions. As the United States faces the twenty-first century, a major challenge is being presented by European
and Asian nations, with world leadership, maintenance '
of our position as a world siiper power, employment for
our citizens, and our future standard of living at stake. A
response has to come from America's young. In recent
years, an increasing number of black students have
demonstrated an interest in science. African American
scientists and engineers already are an integral part of
such institutions the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) and private research and development organizations such as Bell Laboratories. One
area in which African Americans have been faltering,
however, is medicine.
In the mid- to late 1990s, the number of black
appUcants to medical school was declining at an appalling rate. In afieldthirsty for candidates, the search for
African-American physicians-to-be was nearing crisislevel status; The repercussions of this shortage includes
difficulty for the poor and elderly in finding black
1062.
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.' African American Almanac
attendants if they so desire. Primary care specialists^
internists, pediatricians, obstetricians, gynecologists,
etc.—were particularly in demand.
The health care profession began responding to this
problem in 1991, when the Association of American
Medical CoUeges initiated Project 3000 by 2000—the
primary aim being to graduate 3,000 minorities by the
year 20p0. As of 1996, the program was well on its way to
success. In particular, Xavier University was the top
school in the country for African American placement
into medical school, gaining a reputation for placing an
average of 70 percent of its premed seniors into medical
schools each year. Meanwhile, black doctors already in
practice were forming cooperatives amongst themselves
in order to serve those African American patients who
were discriminated against by Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) that considered them too poor or
sick to be participants.
Similarly, the National Dental Association (NDA)
inched the Networking Action Plan, an initiative aimed
at addressing the dental needs of African Americans by
emphasizing regular and routine dental care through the
6,000 dentists who are members. A second thrust involved recruiting partnerships with Howard University
Dental School and Meharry Medical College in an effort
to increase both students and faculty.
The situation is not nearly as dire in engineering,
perhaps due in part to a mentoring program established
in 1975, by the National Action Council for Minorities in
Engineering (NACME). With industry backing, the council
focused oh youngsters as early as at the fourthrade level. More than 4,700 of their students have
acquired engineering degrees and their graduates make
up ten percent of all engineersfromminority groups.
Still, the importance of role modiels with names and
faces can not be overlooked. Some black scientists have
entered into the public consciousness; for example, in
1973; Shirley Ann Jackson became the first black woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in theoretical
particle physics as well as the first female African
American to earn a PhD from the prestigious Masachusetts'
Institute bf Technology (MIT). She has had a distingu ed career, culminating with her appointment as
chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by
President Bill Clinton in 1995.
In 1996, Claude A. Verbal became the first African
American president of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International. A General Motors (GM) Service Parts Operations plant manager, the business executive earned his enginieering degreefromNorth Carolina
State University in 1964.
Another African American rose to the prominent
rank of National Science Foundation (NSF) director,
1063
the highest science-related administrative post in the
United States. Holder of a physics doctorate from St.
Louis' Washington University, Walter Massey was able
to create a number of programs to provide scienceoriented training to young blacks. During his two-year
stint at the NSF, from 1991 to 1993, Massey repeated the
kind of success he had had when he began the Inner City
Teachers Science program while teaching at Brown
University.
In the field of medical research, Charles Whitten
Tounded the National Association for Sickle Cell Disease in 1971. His work has been,complemented more
recently by Griffin Rodgers, chief of the Molecular
Hematology Unit at the National Institutes of Health. In
the 1990s, Rodgers was working on an experimental
anticancer drug that could possibly provide benefits for
sickle cell anemia patients.
1
Patients with prostate cancer have been encouraged
by the work of Detroit-based urologist and oncologist
Isaac Powell. In 1995, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention named his screening program as the
outstanding community health project ofthe year. Powell has been pursuing the idea of advanced diagnostic
testing for black men. Through a partnership with the
Karmanos Cancer Institute and area churches, nurses,
and hospiitals, Powell has been able to educate the
public about the importance of undergoing prostate
cancer screening. Benefitting from a prostate-specific
antigen test, patients have had their cancer caught early
enough to undergo successful surgery. In 1996, Powell's
program was being exported to other cities in the
United States.
The cancer research of Jill Bargonetti, a young African American biologist has garnered much attention.
She discovered a correlation between a specific gene's
ability to bind with the genetic matter known as DNA
and its ability to suppress tumors. In 1996, she received
a $300,000, 3-year grant from the American Cancer
Society and a $200,000, 4-year award from the Department of Defense to pursue her study of breast cancer.
In the early 1990s, Alabama-based rural health-care
provider Dr. Regina Beryamin uncovered a 1977 healthclinic law that distributed additional federal monies for
qualified practices. Since then, other towns have sought
the M.B.A.-holder's advice on how to establish facihties
in their own areas.
Outside of medical research, one-time Olympic athlete and physicist Meredith Gourdine earned a Ph.D
from the California Institute of Technology in 1960. The
Olympic medalist then formed Gourdine Systems, a
research and development firm geared towards producing electricity—from chemical and thermal energy, or
fromflowinggas. Though blinded by diabetes in 1973,
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A member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Alexander was awarded their "Laurel Wreath" for great accomplishment in
1925. Alexander received honorary civil engineering
degrees from the University of Iowa in 1925 and Howard
University in 1946. The following year, Alexander was
named one ofthe University of Iowa's outstanding
alumni and "one of the first hundred citizen of merit"
Politically, active, Alexander was appointed Governor of
the Virgin Islands in 1954 by President Dwight Eisenhower though he was forced to resign one year later due
to health problems. He died at his home in Des Moines,
Iowa in 1958.
Gourdine went on to launch Energy Innovations the
next year. An inventor at heart, he has more than 70
patents in his name and was inducted into the Black
Inventors Hall of Fame.
The energy of earthquakes motivates geophysicist
Waverly Person. His interest in seismology, paid off
when he was named director of the U.S. Geological
Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in
1977. The first African American earthquake scientist,
Person is also the first black in more than 30 years to
hold such a prominent position in the U.S. Department
of the Interior.
Similarly, meteorolgist and climatologist Warren Washington has been concerned with the earth's exterior.
Since 1987, the "greenhouse effect" expert has been
director of the Climate and Global Dynamics Division of
the National Center for Atmospheric Research. After
seven years there, he was elected to a one-year term as
the first African American president of the American
Meteorological Society. Finishing up,there, Washington
cofounded the Black Environmental Science Trust, introducing black children to the joys of science.
Benjamin Banneker 1731-1806
Mathematician/Statistician, Astronomer, Surveyor/
Explorer, Publisher
Bervjamin Banneker was bom on November 9,1731 in
Ellicott, Maryland. His mother was a free woman and his
father was a slave, who ultimately purchased his own
freedom. At the age of 21, Banneker constmcted a clock
based upon a pocket watch he had seen, calculating the
ratio of the gears and wheels and carving them from
wood. The clock operated for more than ,40 years.
Along with hundreds of other notable blacks, African
Banneker's aptitude for mathematics and knowledge
American scientists have been working towards restor- ^
of astronomy enabled him to predict the solar eclipse of
ing scientific education at all levels. Their presence,
1789. Within a few years, he began.publishing an almawhether inside or outside of the' public eye, is felt
nac which contained tide tables, data on future eclipses,
Younger blacks who leam of their endeavors are thus
and a listing of useful medicinal products and formulas.
encouraged tofreetheir creative science minds.
The almanac, which was the first scientific book published by an African American, appeared annually for
more than a decade.
• DISCOVERY G A T E K E E P E R S
Archie Alexander 1887-1958
Civil Engineer
Bom in 1887, in OttumwaJ Iowa, Archie Alphonso
Alexander graduated from the University of Iowa with a
B.S. degree in civil engineering in 1912. During his
collegiate years he was a star football player who earned
the nickname "Alexander the Great" on the playing
field. His first job was as a design engineer for the Marsh
Engineering Company, which specialized in building
bridges. Two years later, in 1914, Alexander formed his
own company, A. A. Alex:ander, Inc. Most of the firm's
contracts were for bridges and sewer systems. So successful was he that the NAACP awarded him its Spingam
Medal in 1928. The following year, he and formed Alexander and Repass with a former classmate. Alexander's
new company was also responsible for building tunnels,
railroad trestles, viaducts, and power plants. Some of
Alexander's biggest accomplishments include the Tidal
Basin Bridge and K Street Freeway in Washington, DC; a
heating plant for his alma mater, the University of Iowa;
a civilian airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama; and a sewagedisposal plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Banneker served as a surveyor on the six-person
team that helped lay out the base lines and initial
boundaries for Washington, DC. When the chairman of
the committee, Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant, abruptiy
resigned and returned to France with his plans, Banneker
was able to reproduce the plans in their entirety. He died
on October 9, 1806.
Andrew Jackson Beard 1850-1910
Railroad Porter, Inventor
While working in an Alabama railroad yard, Beard
had seen men lose hands, even arms, in accidents
occurring,during the manual coupling of railroad cars.
The system in use involved the dropping of a metal pin
into place when two cars crashed together. Men were
often caught between cars and crushed to death during
this split-second operation. Beard's invention, the "Jenny Coupler" (patent 594,059), was an automatic device
which secured two cars by merely bumping them together. In 1897 Beard received $50,000 for an invention
which has since prevented the death or maiming of
countless railroad men.
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• . 1065
Henry Blair 1804-1860
Farmer, Inventor
Maryland native Henry Blair was one the first black
inventors to receive a U.S. patent. He was granted a
patent for a corn-planting machine in 1834, and two
years later, a second patent for a similar device used in
planting cotton. In the registry of the Patent Office, Blair
was designated "a colored man" the only instance of
, identification by race in these early records. Since slaves
could not legally obtain patents, Blair was evidently a
freeman.
Guion Stewart Bluford, Jr. 1942Space/Atmospheric Scientist, Aerospace Engineer, Air •
Force Officer, Airplane Pilot
Guy Bluford was bom November 22, 1942, in Phila-.
delphia He graduated with a B.S. from Pennsylvania
State University in 1964. He then enUsted in the U.S. Air
Fqrce and was assigned to pilot training at Williams Air
Force Base in Arizona. Bluford served as afighterpilot
in Vietnam and flew 144 combat missions, 65 of them
over North Vietnam. Attaining the rank of lieutenant
colonel, Bluford received an M.S. from the Air Force
Institute of Technology in 1974 and a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering in 1978.
In 1979, Bluford was accepted in NASA's astronaut
program as a mission specialist. On August 30, 1983,
with the lift-off ofthe STS-8 Orbiter Challenger Bluford
became thefirstAfrican American in space. Heflewtwo
other space shuttle missions in 1985 and 1991 for a total
of 314 hours iri space. Bluford retiredfromNASA in 1993
to pursue a career in private industry.
Bluford has won numerous awards including the
Distinguished National' Science Award given by the
National Society of Black Engineers (1979), NASA Group
| Achievement Award (1980, 1981), NASA Space Flight
Medal (1983), and the NAACP Image Award in 1983.
Some of his military honors include the National Defensei Service Medal (1965), Vietnam Campaign Medal
(1967), Air Force Commendation Medal (1972), Air
f. Force Meritorious Service Award (1978), and the USAF
Command Pilot Astronaut Wings (1983).
Charles Frank Bolden, Jr. 1946Airplane Pilot, Space/Atmospheric Scientist, Marine
Officer, Operations and Systems Researcher/Analyst
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Southem California, Charles Bolden, Jr. , has a
bachelor of science degree in electrical science and a
master of science degree in systems management Bolden
began his career as a second lieutenant in the U.S.
Marine Corps, becoming a naval aviator by 1970. In
1973, he flew more than 100 sorties while assigned in
M. •
1'
^
Major Charles Bolden
Thailand. Upon return tb the United States, Bolden
began a torn- as a Marine Corps selection and recruiting
officer. Iri 1979, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Test
Pilot School, arid was assigned to the Naval Test Aircraft
Directorates.
Bolden was selected as an astronaut candidate by
NASA in May of 1980, and in July of 1981 completed the
training and evaluation program—making him eligible
for assignment as a pilot on space shuttle flight crews.
Bolden has served as pilot for the Hubble Space Tele-
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African American Almanac
scope mission and was commander of the first Ameri- , been his main focus. Among his accomplishments are a
can-Russian space shuttle mission. In 1994, he accepted number of faultless hemispherectomies, a process in
a position at the Naval Academy. Bolden -has been
which a portion of the brain, of a critically ill seizure
awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Devictim or other neurologically diseased patient is refense Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, and the moved to restore normal functioning. Carson's most
Strike/Flight Medal.
famous operation took place in 1987, earning him international acclaim. That year he successfully separated a
pair of West German Siamese or conjoined twins, who
Marjorie Lee Browne 1914-1979
had been attached at the backs of their heads. The
Mathematician/Statistician, Educator
landmark operation took 22 hours; Carson led a surgical
Browne was bom September 9, ,1914 in Memphis, team of 70 doctors, nurses, and technicians. Since then,
Tennessee. She received a B.S. in mathematics from
he has saved thousands of childrens' lives worldwide.
Howard University in 1935, an M.S. from the University
of Michigan in 1939, and a Ph.D. in mathematics, again
Carson was raised in Detroit. A trouble-maker—he
frpm the University of Michigan, in 1949. Browne taught almost killed a peer during a knifefightwhen he was 14
at the University of Michigan in 1947 and 1948. She
years old^and a failing student, his mother imposed a
accepted the post of Professor of Mathematics at North reading program on him and limited his television viewr
Carolina Central University in 1949 and became depart- ing until his grades improved. In high school, he continment chairperson in 1951.
ued to excel and was accepted at Yale University in
1969, with a scholarship, when he had graduated With a
Browne's doctoral dissertation dealt with topological
B.A. from that Ivy League institution, Carson entered
and matrix groups and she was published in the Amerithe University of Michigan, where he obtained his M.D.
can Mathematical Monthly. She was a Fellow of the
in 1977. For one year he served as a surgical intern at'the
National Science Foundation in 1958-59 and again in
Johns Hopkins Hospital, later doing his residency there
1965-66. Browne was a member of the American Matheas well. From 1983 to 1984, Carson practiced at the Sir
matical Society, the Mathematical Association of AmeriCharles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Australia In 1984, at
ca, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathemat33 years of age, he became the youngest chief of pediatics. She died in 1979.
ric neurosurgery in the United States. Then, in 1985,
Johns Hopkins named him director of pediatric
George E. Carruthers 1940neurosurgery. In the mid-1990s, he was an associate
Physicist
,
professor neurosurgery, plastic surgery, and oncology
at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in addition to
Dr. George Carruthers is one of the two naval rehis duties at the hospital. In 1996, Carson, who penned
search laboratory people responsible for the Apollo 16
an autobiography called Gifted Hands, was in the midst
lunar surface ultraviolet camera/spectrograph, which
of establishing a scholarship fund, USA Scholars Prowas placed on the lunar surface in April 1972. It was
gram, with the aid of his wife.
Carruthers who designed the instrument while William
Conway adapted the camera for the lunar mission. The
spectrographs, obtained from 11 targets, include the,
George Washington Carver 1864-1943
first photographs of the ultraviolet equatorial bands of
Educator, Agricultural/Food scientist, Farmer, Maid/
atomic oxygen that girdle the earth.
Housekeeper
Carruthers, bom on Chicago's south side in 1940,
George Washington Carver devoted his life to rebuilt hisfirsttelescope at the age of ten; He received his
search projects connected primarily with southem agriPh.D. in physics from the University of Illinois in 1964,,
culture. The products he derived from the peanut and
the same year that he started employment with the
the soybean revolutionized the economy of the South by
Navy. Carruthers is the recipient of the NASA Excepliberating it from an excessive dependence on cotton.
tional Scientific Achievement medal for his work on the
ultraviolet camera/spectrograph.
Bom a slave on January 5, 1864 in Diamond Grove,
Missouri, Carver was only an infant when he and his
mother were abducted from his owner's plantation by a
Ben Carson 1951band of slave raiders. His mother was sold and shipped
Neurosurgeon
away, but Carver was ransomed by his master in exBom Beryamin Solomon Carson on September 18,
change for a race horse.
1951, in Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Carson has been recognized throughout the medical community for his prowr
While working as a farm hand, Carver managed to
ess in performing complex neurosurgical procedures,
obtain a high school education. He was admitted as the
particularly on children. Pediatric brain tumors have
first black student of Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa.
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African American Almanac
•
1067
direction. At Howard, he built a collection of more than
600 documented skeletons and a comparative anatomy
museum in the gross anatomy laboratory. In addition to
a B.A. from Amherst College, an M.D. from Howard
University, and a doctorate from Case Western Reserve,
he received many honorary degrees. Cobb died on
November 20, 1990, in Washington, DC.
As editor of the Journal of the National Medical
Association for 28 years, Cobb developed a wide range
of scholarly interests manifested by the nearly 700
published works under his name in thefieldsof medical
education, anatomy, physical anthropology, public health
and medical history. He was the first African American
elected to the presidency of the American Association
of Physical Anthropologists and served as the chairman
ofthe anthropology section ofthe American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among his many
scientific awards is the highest award given by the
American Association of Anatomists. For 31 years was a
member of the board of directors of the NAACP and
served as the president of the board for many years.
George Washington Carver
Price M. Cobbs 1928Psychiatrist, Author, Management Consultant
He then attended Iowa Agricultural College (how Iowa
Cobbs was bom in Los Angeles, California, in 1928,
State University) where, while working as the school
janitor; he received a degree in agricultural science in and followed in his father's footsteps when he enrolled
1894. Two years later he received a master's degree -in medical school after earning a B.A.fromthe University of California at Berkeley. He graduatedfromMeharry
from the same school and became the first African
American to serve on its faculty. Within a short time his Medical College in 1958 and within a few years had.
fame spread, and Booker T. Washington offered him a established his own San Francisco practice in psychiatry.
post at Tuskegee.
With his academic colleague at the University of
California, William H. Grier, Cobbs authored the
Carver revolutionized the southern agricultural economy by showing that 300 products could be derived frpm groundbreaking 1968 study Black Rage. In it, the authe peanut. By 1938, peanuts had become a $200 million thors argued that a pervasive social and economic
racism had resulted in an endemic anger that stretched
industry and. a chief product of Alabama Carver also
across all strata of African American society, from rich
demonstrated that 100 different products could be der
to poor; this anger was both apparent—and magnified
rivedfromthe sweet potato.
by—the social unrest of the 1960s. Cobbs and Grier also
Although he did hold three patents, Carver never
co-authored a second book, The Jesus Bag, that dispatented most of the many discoveries he made while at cussed the role of organized religion in the African
Tuskegee, saying "God gave them to me, how can I sell
American community.
them to someone else?" In 1938 he donated over $30,000
A seminar Cobbs held in 1967 with other mental
of his life's savings to the George Washington Carver
health care professionals eventually led him to found his
Foundation and willed the rest of his estate to the
organization so, his work might be carried on after his own diversity training company, Pacific Management
Systems (PMS). Since its inception, the company has
death. He died on January 5, 1943.
i
been instrumental in providing sensitivity training for
Fortune 500 companies, community groups, law enW. Montague Cobb 1903-1990
forcement bodies, and social service agencies. A memAnthropologist, Organization Executive/Founder,
ber, of numerous African American professional and
Medical Researcher, Educator, Editor
community organizations as well as an assistant clinical
W. Montague Cobb was bom on October 12,1903, in professor at the University of California at San FrancisWashington, DC. For 51 years he was a member of the co, Cobbs continues to guide PMS well into its third
Howard University Medical School faculty, and thoudecade, a firm that has pioneered the concept of
sands ofmedical and dental students studied under his ethnotherapy, which uses the principles of group thera1067
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African American Almanac
Science and Technology
py to help seminar participants rethink their attitudes
toward members of other ethnic groups, the disabled,
and those of alternative sexual orientations.:
dures from research to a clinical level, leading to the
founding of blood banks just prior to World War II. Bom
on June 3, 1904 in Washington, DC, Drew graduated
from Amherst,College in Massachusetts, where he received the Messman Trophy for having brought the
most honor to the school during his four years there. He
was not only an outstanding scholar but the captain of
the track team and a star halfback on the football team.
Elbert Frank Cox 1895-1969
Educator, Mathematician/Statistician
Cox was bom in Evansville, Indiana on December 5,
1895. He receiveid his B.A. from Indiana University in
1917 and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1925. His
dissertation dealt with polynomial solutions and made
Cox the first African American to be awarded a doctorate in pure mathematics. Cox was an instructor at Shaw
University (1921-1923); a professor in physics and
mathematics at West Virginia State College (1925-1929)
and an associate professor of mathematics at Howard
University from 1929 to 1947. In 1947, he was made full
professor; he retired in 1966.
After receiving his medical degree from McGill University in 1933, Drew returned to Washington, DC, to
teach pathology at Howard. In 1940, while taking his
D. Sc. degree at Columbia University, he wrote a d
tation on "banked blood" and soon became such
expert in this field that the. British govemment called
upon him tp set up the first blood bank in England
During World War II, Drew was appointed director of
the American Red Cross blood donor project. Later, he
served as chief surgeon at Freedmen's Hospital in W
ington, DC as well as professor of surgery at Howard •
University Medical School from 1941-1950. He was
killed in an automobile crash on April 1, 1950.
During his career, Cox speicahzed in ihteipolation
theory and differential equations.. Cox was a Brooks
Fellow (1924, 1925) and an Erastus Brooks Fellow. He
belonged to the Mathematical Society and the Physical
Society. Cox died in 1969,
Ulysses Grant Dailey 1885-1961
Editor, Health Administrator, Organization Executive/Founder, Diplomat
From 1908 to 1912, Ulysses Grant Dailey served as
surgical assistant to Dr. Daniel Hale Wilhams, founder
of Provident Hospital and noted heart surgeon. Bom in
Donaldsonville, Louisiana, in 1885, Dailey graduated in
.1906 from Northwestern University Medical School,
where he was appointed a demonstrator in anatomy. He
later studied in London, Paris, and Vienna and in 1926
set up his'own hospital and sanitarium in Chicago. His
name soon became associated with some of the outstanding achievements being made in anatomy and
surgeiy.
An associate editor of the Journal of the National
Medical Association for many years, Dailey traveled
around the'world in 1933 under the sponsorship of the
International College of Surgeons, of which he was a
founder fellow. In 1951, and again in 1953, the U.S. State
Department sent him to Pakistan, India, Ceylon, and
Africa One year later he was named honorary consul to
Haiti.
r
Joycelyn Elders 1933Physician, Endocrinologist, Former'U.S. Surgeon .
General
Dr. Joycelyn Elders was bom Joycelyn Minnie Jones,
on August 13,1933, in Schall, Arkansas. Thefirstof eight
children, she grew up working in cottonfields.An avid
reader, Jones earned a scholarship to the all-black,
Philander Smith College in Little Rock, after graduating
from high school. Jones studied biology and chemistry
in hopes of becoming a lab technician! She was inspired
^towards greater ambitions after meeting Edith Irby
Jones (no relation), the first African American to study,
at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. After
obtaining her B.A., Jones served as a physical therapist
in the U.S. Army in order to fund her post-graduate
education. She was able to enroll in the University of
Arkansas School of Medicine herself in 1956. However,
as the only black woman and one of only three African
American students, she and the other two blacks were
forced to use a separate university dining facility—the
one provided for the cleaning staff.
Having married Oliver B. Elders in 1960, the newly
dubbed Joycelyn Elders fulfilled a pediatric internship ,
at the University of Minnesota, then returned to Little
Rock in 1961 for a residency at the University of Arkan-'
Charles Richard Drew 1904-1950
sas Medical Center. Her success in the position led her
Educator,, Medical Researcher, Health Administrator, to be appointed chief pediatric resident, in charge ofthe
Surgeon/Physician
all-white, all-male battery of residents and interns.
During the next 20 years, Elders forged a successful •
Using techniques already developed for separating
clinical practice, specializing in pediatric endocrinology,
and preserving blood, Charles Drew pioneered further
into thefieldof blood preservation and organized proce- the study of glands. She published more than 100 papers
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lege in 1976, she then won acceptance to the University
in that period and rose to professor of pediatrics, a
position she maintained from 1976 until 1987, when she • of Pennsylvania's medical school.
was named director of the Arkansas Department of
Having heard a speech once on the cure of smallpox
Health.
inspired Gayle to pursue public health medicine, and
Over the course of her career, Elders's focus shifted her direction would prove a significant one in the years
somewhat from diabetes in children to sexual behavior. to come as the plague of AIDS came to decimate comAt the Department of Health, Elders was able to pursue
munities across the globe. She received her medical
her public advocacy in regards to teenage pregnancy
school degree from University of Pennsylvania as well
and sexually transmitted diseases. Under Elders, 18
as an M.A. in public health from Johns Hopkins both in
school clinics w^re opened with the mission bringing 1981. After a residency in pediatrics, she was selected to
sex education to the youth. In 1989, her lobbying efforts enter the epidemiology training program in 1984 at the
finally paid off, and the Arkansas State Legislature
Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, the
mandated a kindergarten to 12th grade course curricunation's top research center for infectious diseases.
lum encompassing instruction in hygiene, substanceFor much of the 1980s Gayle was intensely involved
abuse prevention, elevation of self-esteem, and contrain the CDC's research irito AIDS and HIV infection
ceptive responsibihty for males as well as females.
through her work first in the center's Epidemic IntelliIn 1993, U.S. president Bill Clinton nominated Elders . gence Service and later as a chief of international AIDS
for the U. S. surgeon general post, making her the second research, a capacity in which she oversaw the scientific
African American and the fifth woman to hold the
investigations of over three hundred CDC researchers.
cabinet position. Though her confirmation wais not unThe physician has been instrumental in raising public
challenged—many decried her liberal stance—she was
awareness about the disease, and is especially driven to
formally voted, into approval for the position by the
point out how devastating AIDS has been to the black
Senate on September 7, 1993. Within six months, Eldcommunity. Sex education, better health care for the
ers's first annual SurgeOn General's Report was issued
poor, and substance abuse prevention are some of the
under the title, "Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young proposals Gayle has championed that she believes will
Peopde." The effort was historical in that it was the first help reduce deaths from AIDS.
tb focus just on kids.
In 1992 Gayle was hired as a medical epidemiologist
During her short-lived tenure, Elders would do just
and researcher for the AIDS division of the U.S. Agency
that, i.e. advocating for children as well as for the poor.
for International Development, cementing the physiShe attacked Medicaid for failing to help poverty-strick- cian's reputation as one of the international communien women prevent unwanted pregnancies and faulted
ty's top AIDS scientists.
pharmaceutical companies for overpricing contraceptives. Between 1993 and December of 1994, Elders
spoke out in support of the medicinal use of marijuana, Evelyn Boyd Glanville 1924in favor of studying drug legalization, family planning Author, Educator, Lecturer
and against toy guns for children. Many of her stances
Bom in 1924, Glanville attended Smith College from
Were deemed controversial by conservative factions,
1941 to 1946 and earried an A.B. and an M.A. in mathehut the biggestflakoccurred when Elders was reported
matics. She received a Ph.D. from Yale University in
tb have recommended that masturbation be discussed
1949. She was the first African American woman to be
* in schools as part of human sexuality. She was forced to awarded a Ph.D. in pure mathematics. Glanville's first
. ..resignation by Clinton in December bf 1994.
teaching position was as an instructor at New York
University (1949-1950). She moved to Fisk University
> Elders returned to the University of Arkansas Mediwhere she was an assistant professor (1950-1952) and
cal School, though the state's General Assembly budget
then to the University of Southem California as a lecturcommittee tried to block her return. There she resumed
er (1961-1973). Since then she has been an associate
teaching. In 1995, she was hosting a daily talk show on
professor at California State University. Glanville is the
AM stations KYSG in Little Rock and WERE iri Cleveland
author of Theory of Applications of Math for Teachers.
•i
Helene D. Gayle 1955Epidemiologist, AIDS Researcher
'
Helene Gayle was bom in 1955 in Buffalo, New York,
the third offivechildren of an entrepreneur father and
. ,*>cial worker mother, her brother would also go on to
:become a doctor. After graduating from Barnard Col-
Frederick Drew Gregory 1941Airplane Pilot, Air Force Officer <
(
Gregory was bom January 7,1941 in Washington, DC.
He is the nephew of the late Dr. Charles Drew, noted
African-American blood plasma specialist. Under the
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African Americain Almdniic
sponsorship of United States Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Gregory attended the U.S. Air Force Academy and graduated with a B.S. in 1964. In 1977, he
received an M.S.A. from George Washington University.
spices; and researched the effects of antioxidants on
fats. Along the way, he registered more than 100 patents
for processes used in the manufacturing and packing of
food, especially meat and bakery products.
Gregory was a helicopter and fighter pilot for the
USAF from 1965 to 1970 and a research and test pilot for
the USAF and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1971. In 1978 he was accepted into
NASA's astronaut program. In 1985 he went into space
aboard the Spacelab 3 Challenger Space Shuttle as a
pilot Currently,'Gregory is with NASA's astronaut program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas,
and he is a colonel in the USAF.
In 1954, Hall became chairman of the Chicago chapter ofthe American Institute of Chemists. The following
year, he was elected a member of the national board of
directors, becoming the first African American man to
hold that position in the institute's 32-year history.
Upon his retirement from Griffith in 1959, Hall continued to serve as a consultant to various state and federal
organizations. In 1961, he spent six months in Indonesia
advising the Food and Agricultural Organization ofthe
, United Nations. From 1962 to 1964, he was a member of
the American Food for Peace Council, an appointment
made by President John F. Kennedy.
.'>•'•
Gregory belongs to the Society of Experimental Test
Pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen, the American Helicopter
Society, and the National Technical Association. He has
won numerous medals and awards including the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and two NASA Space Flight Medals. He has twice
received the Distinguished Flying Cross and is also the
recipient of George Washington University's Distinguished Alumni Award, NASA's Outstanding Leadership
Award, and the National Society of Black Engineers'
Distinguished National Scientist Award.
Matthew Alexander Henson 1866-1955
Seaman, Explorer/Surveyor, Author
Mathew Henson was bom August 8, 1866, in Charles
County, Maryland near Washington, DC. He attended
school in Washington for six years but at the age of
thirteen signed on as a cabin boy on a ship headed for
China. Henson worked his way up to seaman while he
Lloyd Augustus Hall 1894-1974
Research Director, Chemist
Grandson of the first pastor of Quinn Chapel A.M.E.
Church; the first African American church in Chicago,
Lloyd Augustus Hall was bom in Elgin, Illinois, on June
20,1894. A top student and athlete at East High School in
Aurora, Illinois, he graduated in the top ten of his class
and was offered scholarships to four different colleges
in Illinois. In 1916, Hall graduated from Northwestern
University with a bachelor of science in chemistry. He
continued his studies at the University of Chicago and
the University of Illinois.
Hall served his country during World War I; as a
lieutenant, his job was to inspect explosives at a Wisconsin, plant. After the war, Hall joined the Chicago
Department of Health Laboratories, where he quickly
rose to senior chemist. In 1921, he took employment at
Boyer Chemical Laboratory before becoming president
and chemical director of the Chemical Products Corpo-.
ration the following year. In 1924, he was offered a
position with Griffith Laboratories. Within one year he
was chief chemist and director of research.
There Hall entered the most unique and fruitful phase
of his career. He discovered curing salts for the preserving and processing of meats, thus revolutionizing the
meat-packing industry; discovered how to sterilize
Matthew Henson
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sailed over many of the world's oceans. Tiring of life at
sea, Henson took a job in a Washington, DC clothing
store. While there he met Nicaragua-bound, U.S. Navy
surveyor Robert Edward Peary. He was hired on the
spot as Peary's valet. Henson was not pleased at being a
personal servant but nonetheless felt his new position
held future opporttmities.
1071
William Augustus Hinton 1883-1959
Lecturer, Medical Researcher, Educator
Long one of the world's authorities on venereal disease, Dr. William A. Hinton is responsible for the development of the Hinton test, a reliable method for detecting syphilis. He also collaborated with Dr. J. A. V. Davies
on what is how called the Davies-Hinton test for the
detection of this same disease.
Peary eventually became obsessed with arctic exploration. After numerous trips to Greenland between 1893
Bom in Chicago on December 15,1883, Hinton graduand 1905, Peary became convinced that he could beated from Harvard in 1905. In 1912, he finished his
come the first man to stand at the North Pole. Henson
medical studies in three years at Harvard Medical School.
accompanied Peary on these trips to Greenland and
For three years after graduation, he was a voluntary
became an integral part of Peary's plans. In 1906, along assistant in the pathological laboratory at Massachuwith a number of Inuits, Peary and Henson set out from setts General Hospital. This was followed by eight years
Greenland on theirfirstattempt to reach the North Pole.
of laboratory practice at the Boston Dispensary and at
They came within 160 miles of their goal but were forced . the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. In
to turn back because unseasonably warm weather had
1919, Hinton was appointed lecturer in preventive medicreated open sheets of water that could not be traversed cine and hygiene at Harvard Medical School where he
bydogsled.
served for 34 years. In 1949, he was the first person of
color to be granted a professorship there.
Undaunted, Peary and Henson tried again in 1909.
Although Peary was undoubtedly the driving force of
these expeditions he was increasingly reliant on Henson.
Henson's greatest asset was his knowledge of the Inuit
language and his abihty to readily adapt to their culture.
He was also an excellent dog driver and possessed a
physical stamina that Peary lacked due tb leukemia
Henson felt that he was serving the black race by his
example of loyalty, fortitude, and trustworthiness.
In 1931, at the Boston Dispensary, Hinton started a
training school for poor girls so that they could become
medical technicians. From these classes of volunteers
grew one of the country's leading institutions for the
training of technicians! Though he lost a leg in an
automobile accident, Hinton remained active in teaching and at the Boston Dispensary Laboratory, which he
directed from 1916 to 1952. He died in Canton, Massachusetts on August 8, 1959.
By the end of March of 1909, they were within 150
. miles of their goal. Henson, because of his strength,'
would break trail and set up camp for the night, while Shirley Ann Jackson 1946Lecturer, Physicist
Peary followed. On April 6th, Henson thought he had
reached the Pole. When Peary arrived later he asserted
Born in Washington, DC, in 1946, Shirley Ann Jackthat they were three miles short. After a brief rest they
son graduated as valedictorian of her class from Rooseboth set out together and stopped when they thought ' velt High School in 1964. In 1968, she received a bachethey were in the area of the North Pole. There have been lor of science degree from Massachusetts Institute of
conflicting theories ever since as to who was the first
Technology. In 1973 she became the first African Ameriman to reach the top of the world.
can woman in' the United States to earn a Ph.D. in
physics, which she also earned from Massachusetts
In 1912, Henson wrote A Negro at the North Pole but
the book aroused little interest. He took workfirstas a Institute of Technology.
porter and then as a customs official in New York. By
Jackson's first position—as a research associate at
the 1930s, however, Henson began receiving recognithe Fenhi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia,
tion for his contributions to arctic exploration. In 1937 Illinois and where ishe studied large subatomic partihe was thefirstAfrican American elected to the Explor- cles—reflected her interest in the study of particles
ers Club in New York. In 1945 he and other surviving
found within atoms. Jackson has worked as a member
members of the expedition received the Navy Medal. In of the technical staff on theoretical physics at AT&T
the early 1950s Henson received public recognition for Bell Laboratories, as a visiting scientist at the European
his deeds from President Eisenhower. Henson died in
Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, and as a
1955 and was buried in New York. In 1988 his remains
visiting lecturer at the NATO International Advanced
were exhumed and buried with full military honors\at
Study Institute in Belgium. In 1995, President Bill ClinArlington National Cemetery next to the grave of Robert ton named Jackson as chairperson ofthe Nuclear ReguPeary:
latory Commission.
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Jemison resigned from NASA in 1993 to pursue personal
goals related to science education and health care in
West Africa In 1994 Jemison founded the International
Science Camp in Chicago to help young people become
enthusiastic about science.
In 1988, Jemison won the Science and Technology
Award.given by Essence magazine and in 1990 she was
Gamma Sigma Gamma's Woman of the Year. In 1991 she
earned a Ph.D. from Lincoln University.
,
>
Frederick McKlnley Jones 1892-1961
Mechanic
In 1935, Frederick Mckinley Jones built the first
automatic refrigeration system for long haul trucks.
Later, the system was adapted to various other carriers
including railway cars and ships. Previously, foods were
packed in ice so slight delays led to spoilage. Jones' new
method instigated a change in eating habits and patterns
of the entire nation and allowed for the development of
food production facilities in almost any geographic
location.
Jones was bom in Cincinnati in 1892. His mother died
when he was a boy and he moved to Covington, Kentucky, where he was raised by a priest until he was
sixteen. When he left the rectory, Jones worked as a pin
. boy, mechanic's assistant, andfinally,as chief mechanic
on a Minnesota farm. He served in World War I, and in
the late 1920s, his mechanical fame spread when he
developed a series of devices to adapt silent movie
projectors into sound projectors.
Dr. Mae Jemison
Mae C. Jemison 1956Physician/Surgeon
Mae Jemison was bom October 17,1956, in Decatur,
Alabama but her family moved to Chicago when she was
three. She attended Stanford University on a National
Achievement Scholarship and received a B.S. in chemical engineering and a B.A. in Afro-American studies in
1977. She then enrolled in Cornell University's medical
school and graduated in 1981. Her medical internship
was at the Los Angeles County/University of Southem
California Medical Center in 1982. She was a general
practitioner with the INA/Ross Loos Medical Group in
Los Angeles until 1983, followed by two years as a Peace
Corp medical officer in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Returning to the United States in 1985, she began working
for CIGNA Health Plans, a health maintenance organization in Los Angeles.
In 1987, Jemison was accepted in NASA's astronaut
program. Her first assignment was representing the
astronaut office at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape
Canaveral, Florida. On September 12, 1992, when the
space shuttle Endeavor lifted off, Jemison was aboard
and became the first African American woman in space.
She served aboard the Endeavor as a science specialist
Jones also developed an air conditioning unit for
military field hospitals, a portable x-ray machine, and a
refrigerator for military field kitchens. During his life, a
total of 61 patents were issued in Jones's name. He died
in 1961.
Percy Lavon Julian 1898-1975
Educator, Medical Researcher, Research Director
Bom on April 11, 1898 in Montgomery, Alabama,
Julian attended DePauw University in Greencastie, Indi-.
ana He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was valedictorian of his class after having lived during his college days
in the attic of afraternityhouse where he worked as a
waiter. For several years, Julian taught at Fisk and
Howard universities, as well as at West Virginia State
College, before attending Harvard and the University of
Vienna
In 1935, Julian synthesized the drug physostigmine,
which is used today in the treatment of glaucoma He
later headed the soybean research department of the
Glidden Company and then formed Julian Laboratories,
in order to specialize in the production of sterols; which
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•
1073
honors from Dartmouth and his Ph.D. in 1916 from the
University of Chicago. His groundbreaking work on the
embryology of marine invertebrates included research
on fertilization—a process known as parthenogenesis—
but his most important achievement was his discovery
of the role protoplasm palys in the development of a
cell.
A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Just received the
Spingam Medal in 1914 and served as associate editor of
Physiological Zoology, The Biological Bulletin, and The
Journal of Morphology. Between 1912 and 1937, he
published more than 50 papers on fertilization, parthenogeriesis, cell division, and mutation. In 1930 Just was
one of 12 zoologists to address the International-Congress bf Zoologists and he was elected vice president of
the American Society of Zoologists.
Samuel L. Kountz 1931-1981
Physician/Surgeon, Medical Researcher
Dr. Percy Julian
he extracted from the oil of the soybean. The method
perfected by Julian in 1950 eventually lowered the cost
of sterols to less than 20 cents a gram, and ultimately
enabled millions of people suffering from arthritis to
obtain relief through the use of cortisone, a sterol
derivative. Later, Julian developed methods for manufacturing sex hormones from soya bean sterols:
progesterone was used to prevent miscarriages, while
testosterone was used to treat older men for diminishing sex drive. Both hormones were important in the
treatment of cancer. ,
In 1953, after serving as director of research for the
Glidden Company, he founded his own company, the
Julian Institute, in Franklin Park, Illinois and Mexico.
Years later, the institute was sold to Smith, Klein and
French. In 1947, Julian was awarded the Spingam Medal, and in 1968 he wais awarded the Chemical Pioneer
Award by the American Institute of Chemists. He died
onAprill9,1975. '
Ernest Everett Just 1883-1941
Editor, Zoologist, Marine Biologist
Bom ih Charleston, South Carolina, on August 14,
1883, Ernest Just-received his B.A. in 1907 with high
Bom in 1931 in Lexa, Arkansas,. Samuel Kountz graduated third in his class at the Agricultural, Mechanical
and Normal College of Arkansas in 1952. He pursued
graduate studies at the University of Arkansas, earning a
degree in chemistry. Senator J. W. Fulbright, whom he
met while a graduate student, advised Kountz to apply
for a scholarship to medical school. Kountz won the
scholarship on a competitive basis and was the first
black to enroll at the University of Arkansas Medical
School in Little Rock. Kountz was responsible for finding out that large doses of the drug methylprednisolone
could help reverse the acute rejection of a transplanted
kidney; The drug was used for a number of years in the
standard management of kidney transplant patients.
In 1964, working with Dr. Roy Cohn, one of the
pioneers in the field of transplantation, Kountz made
medical history by transplanting a kidney from a mother
to a daughter—the first transplant between humans,
who were not identical twins. At. the University of
California in 1967, Dr. Kountz worked with other researchers to develop the prototype of a machine which
is now able to preserve kidneys up to fifty hours from
the time they are taken from the body of a donor. The
machine; called the Belzer Kidney Perfusion Machine,
was named for Dr. Folkert O. Belzer, who was Dr.
Kountz's partner. Dr. Kountz died in 1981 after a long
illness contracted oh a trip to South Africa in 1977.
.
1
J
Theodore K. Lawless 1892-1971
Physician, Philanthropist
„
Theodore Kenneth Lawless was bom on December 6,
1892, in Thibodeaux, Louisiana. He received his bachelor's from Talladega College in 1914 and continued to
further his education through 1924 at Northwestern
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University, where he received his medical doctorate
degree and on year of a master's in dermatology, which
hefinishedat Columbia Universityfromthere he attended Harvard University, the University of Paris, the University of Freiburg, and the University of Vienna, where
he continued his extensive work in dermatology.
Weston Electric Company. In 1884, he joined the Edison
Company.
_
Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. 1935-1967
Astronaut, Airplane Pilot
Air Force Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. was the flrat
African American astronaut to be appointed to the
Manned Orbiting Laboratory. Lawrence was a native of
Chicago, and while still in elementary school he became
a model airplane hobbyist and a chess enthusiast Lawrence became interested in biology during his time at
Englewood High School in Chicago. As a student at
Englewood, Lawrence excelled in chemistry and track,
placing top in the 440 and 880. When he graduated, he
placed in the top ten percent of the class.
Lawless started his own practice in the Chicago's
predominantly black south side upon his return in 1924,
which he continued until his death in 1971. He soon
became one of the premier dermatologists in the country and earned great praise for researching treatments
and cures for a variety of skin diseases, including syphilis, leprosy, and sporotrichosis. During the early years of
his career, he taught dermatology at Northwestern University Medical School; where his research was instrumental in devising electropyrexia, a treatment for those
suffering cases of syphilis in its early stages. Before he
left his role at Northwestern in 1941, he aided in building
the university's first medical laboratories.
Lawrence entered Bradley University, joining the Air
Force Reserve Officer's Training Corps and attaining
the rank of lieutenant colonel, the second highest ranking cadet at Bradley! Lawrence was commissioned a
second lieutenant in the United States Air Force in 1956
and soon after received his bachelors degree in chemistry. Following a stint at an air base in Germany, Lawrence entered Ohio State University through the Air
Force Institute of Technology as a doctoral candidate.
After leaving Northwestern, Lawless entered the business world beginning as president of 4213 South Michigan Corporation, which sold low-cost real estate, and
later as president of the Service Federal Sayings and
Loan Association. And by the 1960s, he was well-known
as one of the 35 richest black men in the United States,
During his lifetime, Lawless served on dozens of boards
of directors and belonged to countiess organizations.
He served on the Chicago Board of Health, as senior
attending physician at Provident hospital, as associate
examiner in dermatology for the National Board of
Medical Examiners as chairman of the Division pf Higher Education, and as consultant to the Geneva Community Hospital in Switzerland. He was also recognized
with many awards for his exemplary breakthroughs in
medicine, public service, and philanthropy, including
the Harmon Award in Medicine in 1929, the Churchman
pf the Year in 1952, the Springam Medal from the
NAACP in 1954, and the Daniel H. Bumham Award from
Roosevelt University in 1963.He died in 1971.
Lewis Howard Latimer 1848-1928
Draftsperson, Electrical Engineer
Lewis Howard Latimer was employed by Alexander
Graham Bell to make the patent drawings for the first
telephone, and later went on to become chief draftsman
for both the General Electric and Westinghouse companies. Bom in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on September 4,
1848, Latimer enlisted iri the Union Navy at the age of 15,
and began studying drafting upon completion of his
military service. In 1881, he invented a method of making carbonfilamentsfor the Maxim electric incandescent lamp; he later patented this method. He also supervised the installation of electric light in New York,
Philadelphia, Montreal, and London for the Maxim-
Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr.
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Lawrence's career came to an end in 1967 when his F104D Starfighter jet crashed on a runway in a California
desert.
Arthur C. Logan 1909-1973
Community Activist, Civil Rights/Human Rights Activist, Physician/Surgeon
. Arthur Logan was bom in Tuskegee, Alabama in
1909. When he was ten his family moved to New York
City, where he received his middle school and high
school education. After attending Williams College in
Williamstown, Massachusetts, he went to medical school
at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating in 1934. Wishing to work among his
people, Logan interned at Harlem Hospital and was
affiliated with the hospital for the rest of his life.
In addition to his many years of medical service to
Harlem residents and others, Logan also headed New
York City's Council Against Poverty in 1965 at the
request of Robert F. Wagner, then mayor of the city.
Logan was a board member of New York City's Health
and Hospital Corporation, as well as a longtime activist
in the civil-rights movement, and a strong supporter of a
wide range of community causes. He was active with the
National Urban League and the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund, and was an intimate friend of Martin Luther King,
Jr., Whitney Young, and Roy Wilkins. His home in New
York was often a meeting place for majorfiguresin the
dyil-rights movement in the 1960s.
y v
<4>
Drawings for Matzeliger's shoe lasting machine.
trial Revolution had by this time resulted in the invention of machines to cut, sew, and tack shoes, but none
had been perfected to last a shoe. Seeing this, Matzeliger
lost little time in designing and patenting just such a
device, one which he refined over the years to a point
where it could adjust a shoe, arrange the leather over
the sole, drive in the nails, and deliver the finished
product—all in one minute's time.
Miles Vandahurst Lynk 1871-1956
Publisher, Physician/Surgeon, Educational
Administrator
.
>> Miles Vandahurst Lynk was bom on June 3, 1871,
•'; r Brownsville, Tennessee. He was founder, editor,
I ; _ _ publisher of the first black medical journal, the
sf; Medical and Surgical Observer, first published ih DeIj? cember OF 1892. At the age of nineteen, Lynk received
p his M.D. degree from Meharry Medical College. Lynk
| | ;Was one of the organizers of the first black national
"^medical association; the organization later became the
| 'jNatiorial Medical Association. He also founded and was
president of the School of Medicine at the University of
West Tennessee.
|
Jan MatzeUger 1852-1889
Inventor, Shoemaker/Leather Worker
"f
• •
%Born in 1852 in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, Matzeliger
$ fc d employment in the govemment machine works at
jSi the age of 10. Eight years later, he immigrated to the
jjl^yhited States, settling in Philadelphia, where he worked
pl~iin a shoe factory. He later moved to New England,
|;>8ettling permanently in Lynn, Massachusetts.The Indus-
Matzeliger's patent was subsequently bought by Sydney W. Winslow, who established the United Shoe Machine Company. The continued success of this business
brought about a 50 percent reduction in the price of
shoes across the nation, doubled wages, and improved
working conditions for millions of people dependent on
the shoe industry for their livelihood.Between 1883 and
1891, Matzeliger receivedfivepatents on his inventions,
all which contributed to the shoe making revolution; His
last patent was issued in September 1891, two years
posthumously.
MatzeUger died in 1889attheageof37,longbeforehe
had the chance to realize a share of the enormous profit
derived from his invention. He never received any money. Instead, he was issued stock in the company which
did not become valuable until after his death.
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Eiyah McCoy
Inventor, Machinist
McNair was working ih optical physics when he was
selected by NASA in 1978 to train as an astronaut In
August 1979, he completed a one-year training and
evaluation period that made him eligible for assignment
as mission specialist on space shuttle flight crews. He
presented papers in the areas of lasers and molecular
spectroscopy and gave many presentations in the United States and Europe. He was the second African American to orbit the earth on a NASA Mission.
Bom in Canada, McCoy moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan, after the Civil War, and over the next 40 years,
acquired some 57 patents for devices designed to streamline his automatic lubrication process.
Elyah McCoy's inventions were primarily connected
with the automatic lubrication of moving machinery.
Perhaps his most valuable design was the "drip cup," a
tiny container filled with oil whoseflowto the essential
moving parts of heavy-duty machinery was regulated by
means of a "stopcock. " The drip cup was a key device in
perfecting the overall lubrication system used in large
industry today.
Despite the rigorous training in the NASA program
he taught karate at a church, played the saxophone, and
found time to talk to young people. McNair was aboard
the flawed shuttle ChaUenger that exploded shortly
after lift-off from Cape Kennedy and plunged into the
waters off the Florida coast on January 28, 1986. The
shuttle had a crew pf seven persons, including two
women, a mission specialist, and a teacher-in-space
participant.
Ronald E. McNair 1950-1986
Astronaut
Ronald McNair was bom on October 12,1950, in Lake
City, South Carolina He was graduate of North Carolina
A&T State University with a B.S. degree in physics. He
also received a Doctor of Philosophy in Physics from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was presented an honorary Doctorate of Laws from North Carolina
A&T in 1978.
Bom in Paris, Kentucky, in 1877, Morgan moved to
Cleveland at an early age. Hisfirstinvention was an
improvement on the sewing machine which he sold for
Dr. Ronald McNair
Garret Morgan
Garrett Augustus MorganT877-1963
Inventor
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�African American Almanac
Science and Technology
$150. In 1923, having established his reputation with the
gas inhalator, he was able to command a price of $40,000
from the General Electric Company for his automatic
traffic signal.
1077
as well as in the manufacture of soap, gelatin, glue, and
many other products.
Mabel K. Staupers 1890-1989
Nursing Executive, CivU Rights/Human Rights Activist
The value of Garrett Morgan's "gas inhalator" was
first acknowledged during a successful rescue operation of several men trapped by a tunnel explosion in the
Cleveland Waterworks, some 200 feet below the surface
of Lake Erie. During the emergency, Morgan, his broth-'
er, and two other volunteers—all wearing inhalators—
were the only men able to descend into the smoky, gasfilled tunnel, and save several workersfromasphyxiation.
Staupers was bom in Barbados in 1890, and moved
with her family to Harlem as a teenager. She graduated
from Washington, DC's Freedmen's Hospital School of
Nursing in 1917, returned to Harlem, and, by 1920, had
cofounded a tuberculosis clinic for African American
sufferers there. She served as the director of nursing at
the clinic—named after Booker T. Washington—before
deciding she could better serve in the profession as an
educator.
. Orders for the Morgan inhalator soon began to pour
into Cleveland from fire companies all over the nation,
but as soon as Morgan's racial identity became known,
The racism Staupers witnessed in a white hospital
many of them were canceled. In the South, it was •" she became involved with—during her stint as superinnecessary for Morgan to utilize the services of a white tendent of nursing at Mudget Hospital in Philadelphia—
man to demonstrate his invention. Dining World War I convinced her to work toward eradicating prejudice in
the Morgan inhalator was transformed into a gas mask
the profession. Returning to New York, she served as
used by combat troops. Morgan died in 1963 in Cleve- executive seicretary of the Harlem Committee of the
land, the city which had awarded him a gold medal for
New York Tuberculosis and Health Association from
his devotion to public safety.
1922 to 1934 before taking on a post ofthe same name at
the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses
Norbert Rillieux 18,06-1894
(NACGN), an organization that worked to improve workInventor, Mechanical Engineer
ing conditions for and erase racism toward African
American nurses. With the outbreak of World War II,
Norbert Rillieux's inventions were of great value to
the sugar-refining industry. The method formerly used Staupers began enjoining the military branches to accept African American nurses into its medical Corps
called for gangs of slaves to ladle boiling sugarcane
units.
juice frpm one kettle to another—a primitive process
1
known as."the Jamaica Train." In 1845, Rillieux (18061894) invented a vacuum evaporating pan (a series of
condensing coils in vacuum chambers) which reduced
the industry's dependence on gang labor and helped
manufacture a superior product at a greatly reduced
cost The first RilUeux evaporator was installed at Myrtle Grove Plantation, Louisiana, in 1845. In the following
years, factories in Louisiana, Cuba, and Mexico converted to the Rillieux system.
The U.S. Army Nurse Corps was the first to integrate,
but only grudgingly, with a quota system in place.
Staupers fought—with the help of First Lady Eleanor
Roosevelt—to end the quotas and win these African
American nurses wishing to serve their country more
equal assignments. By the war's end, the quota system
had been eliminated and the Navy Nurse Corps had also
been integrated. She dissolved the NACGN in 1951—
shortly after serving as its president—because, as she
said at the time, its aims had been accomplished. That
A native of New Orleans, Rillieux was the son of
same year Staupers was awarded the NAACP's distinVincent RilUeux, a wealthy engineer, and Constance
. Vivant, a slave on his plantation. Young Rilheux's higher guished Spingam Medal. She recounted her Ufe in the
1961 autobiography No Time for Prejudice: A Story of
education was obtained in Paris, where his extraordithe Integration of Negroes in Nursing in the United
nary aptitude for engineering led to his appointment at
States. Staupers died in 1989 a few months short of what
the age of twenty-four as an instructor of applied
would have been her one hundredth birthday.
mechanics at L'Ecole Centrale. RilUeux returned to
Paris permanently in 1854, securing a scholarship and
working on the deciphering of hieroglyphics.
Lewis Temple 1800-1854
Inventor
When his evaporator process was finally adopted in
Europe, he returned to inventing with renewed interest—applying his process to the sugar beet. In so doing,
he cut production and refining costs in half. RilUeux
died in Paris on October 8,1894, leaving behind a system
which is in universal use throughout the sugar industry,
The toggle harpoon invented by Lewis Temple so
improved the whaling methods of the nineteenth century that it more than doubled the catch for this leading
New England industry. Little is known of Temple's early
background, except that he was bom in Richmond,
1077
�African American Alrnarue '
Science and Technology
1078
in Surgical Shock and Cardiovascular Surgery: Vivien
Thomas and His Work with Alfred Blalock.
Virginia, in 1800 and had no formal educiation. As a
young man he moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts,
then a major whaling port Finding work as a metal
smith, Temple modified the design of the whaler's harpoon, and in the 1840s, manufactured a new version of
the harpoon which allowed lines to be securely fastened
to the whale. Using the "toggle harpoon," the whaling
industry soon entered a period of unprecedented prosperity. Temple, who never patented his harpoon, died
destitute.
Levi Watkins, Jr. 1945Surgeon, Educator
Watkins was bom in Kansas in 1945 but grew up in
Montgomery, Alabama, where through his involvement
in local churches became acquainted with civil rights
leaders Dr. Ralph David Abemathy and the Reverend
Martin Luther King. Both were prominent members of
the Montgomery community, as was Watldns's own
father, a college professor. The teenager's participation
in civil rights issues did not stop him from excelling
academically, and he graduated as valedictorian of his
high school class and went on to earn a 1966 horiois
degreefromTennessee State University.
i
Vivien Thomas 1910-1985
Surgical Research Technician
9
Bom in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1910, Thomas had
dreamed of a career as a physician since childhood. As a
teenager, he worked as a carpenter and as an orderly to
earn money for college, and enrolled in Tennessee
Agricultural and Industrial College in 1929. Sadly, the
stock market crash later that year eradicated Thomas's
savings, and he was forced to quit school.
The following year, he was hired for a research
assistant post at Vanderbilt University Medical School;
he would be trauma researcher and surgeon Alfred
Blalock's assistant For the next decade, Thomas worked
long hours in the lab, conducting medical experiments .
for Blalock that eventually led to lifesaving advances in
medicine during World War II, especially in the use Of
blood transfusions.
When Blalock was hired by the prestigious medical
school at Johns Hopkins University in 1940, he would
accept the post only if they hired Thomas as well.
Thomas then served as director ofthe medical school's
Hunterian Surgical Research Laboratory, where he continued to test out the scientific theories Blalock presented., One of their most significant achievements together
was a surgical procedure that restructured an infant's
heart if the child was in danger of death due to poor
circulation of blood into the lungs. Thomas virtually
instructed the surgeon on some parts of the procedure
he had already performed many times on dogs, and was
present for the university's first 100 trials of the surgery.
Watldns's awareness of issues of racial inequality led
him to apply to Vanderbilt University Medical School,
and he first learned of his acceptance as itsfirstAfrican
American student by reading the nevvspaper headline
announcing the breakthrough. He graduated in 1970,
and began his internship and surgical training at the
prestigious medical school at Johns Hopkins University.
Watkins also studied at Harvard University Medical
School for a time, and there conducted research that led
to the lifesaving practice of prescribing angiotensin
blockers for patients susceptible to heart failure.
In 1978, Watkins became Johns Hopkins's first African American chief resident in cardiac surgery and
became a faculty member that year as well. Two years
later, he made medical history with the successful surgical implantation of an AID (Automatic Implantable
Defibrillator) device, which has been credited with
saving countless lives by its abihty to keep the heart
pumping blood at a normal rate. In 1991 hebecameaful]
professor of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins, another
first for the institution. For several years, however,
Watkins had been working to increase minority presence at this elite medical school, and he instituted a
special minority recruiting drive.when he was appoint-.
edtothe medical school's admissions committee. Watkins
was known for writing personal letters enjoining qualified minority applicants to apply to the school, and
because of his work, minority enrollment increased 400
percent in four years.. Such accomplishments lend an
added import to the campus birthday celebration Watkins
organizes annually on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Thomas became a well-known, and well-regarded
figure on the campus of Johns Hopkins, and ironically
became known as an unofficial expert in. veterinary
medicine because of his long research experience with
lab dogs. He remained at the institution even after his
mentor passed away in 1964, and in 1971 was hbnored
by graduates of its medical school for his achievements.
Daniel Hale Williams 1856-1931
He became a medical school faculty member in 1977,
Surgeon/Physician
.
,
but perhaps received more personal satisfaction from
the honorary degree the university had awarded him.
A pioneer in open heart surgery, Daniel Hale Williams
Thomas passed away in 1985, the same year a recount- was bom in Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on January 1.8,
ing of his life was published with Pioneering Research 1856. His father died when he was 11, and his mother
1078
�Science and Technology
.African American Almanac
• . 1079
barber before finishing his education at the Chicago
Medical College in 1883.
Williams opened his office on Chicago's South Side at
a time when Chicago hospitals did not allow African
American doctors to use their facihties. In 1891 Dr.
Williams founded Provident Hospital which was open to
patients of all races. At Provident Hospital on July 10,
1893, Williams performed the operation upon which his
later fame rests. A patient was admitted to the emergency ward with a knife wound in an artery lying a fraction
of an inch from the heart. With the aid of sbe staff
surgeons, Williams made an incision in the patient's
chest and operated successfully on the artery.
For the next four days, the patient, James Cornish,
lay near death, his temperature far above normal and his
pulse dangerously uneven. An encouraging rally then
brought him out of immediate danger, terminating the
crisis period. Three weeks later, minor surgery was
performed by Williams to remove fluid from Cornish's
pleural cavity. After recuperating for still another month,
Cornish fully recovered and was able to leave the hospital, scarred but cured.
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
deserted him after apprenticing him to a cobbler. He
later worked as a roustabout on a lake steamer and as a
Williams was instrumental in the forming of the
Medico-Chirurgical Society and the National Medical
Association. In 1913; he was inducted into the American
Board of Surgery at its first convention. Wilhams died
on August 4, 1931, after a lifetime devoted to his two
main interests—the NAACP and the construction of
hospitals and training schools for black doctors and
nurses.
1079
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Michael Waldman
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Michael Waldman was Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting from 1995-1999. His responsibilities were writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, which included four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. From 1993 -1995 he served as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination.</p>
<p>The collection generally consists of copies of speeches and speech drafts, talking points, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, articles, clippings, and presidential schedules. A large volume of this collection was for the State of the Union speeches. Many of the speech drafts are heavily annotated with additions or deletions. There are a lot of articles and clippings in this collection.</p>
<p>Due to the size of this collection it has been divided into two segments. Use links below for access to the individual segments:<br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+1">Segment One</a><br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+2">Segment Two</a></p>
Creator
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Michael Waldman
Office of Speechwriting
Date
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1993-1999
Identifier
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2006-0469-F
Extent
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Segment One contains 1071 folders in 72 boxes.
Segment Two contains 868 folders in 66 boxes.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Still Image
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Original Format
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paper
Dublin Core
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Title
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[Science and Technology] [3]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 64
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36403"> Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763296">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F Segment 1
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
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Preservation-Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
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6/3/2015
Source
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7763296
42-t-7763296-20060469F-Seg1-064-007-2015