African American contributions to fabric of the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Clara Hale




In 1940, Mrs. Clara Hale learned that she could become a foster mother. During the next 25 years, she became "Mommy" Hale to over 40 children of all ethnic and religious backgrounds.

As problems associated with drug abuse exploded in the Harlem community, Mrs. Hale's family implored her to take action. Within six months, she had 22 babies of heroin-addicted women in her five-room apartment. Soon, she had helped establish a home for infants addicted before birth. It was the first--and only known program--in the U.S. designed to deal with infants born addicted to illegal drugs.

In 1975, Hale House became the "Center for the Promotion of Human Potential," a licensed voluntary childcare agency. At that time, it was the only black voluntary agency in the country.

"Mother" Hale had cared for over 500 children at Hale House. She was a nurturing, loving, comforting woman who genuinely cared about the future of these otherwise friendless children.

Shortly before her death in New York City, she kept at least one infant in her own room. She died of complications of a stroke on December 18, 1992, at the age of 87.

[Anonymous]

There is something special about that generation that was born in or after Reconstruction but before Jim Crow (and time to grow up some before Jim Crow was implemented). I wish I was old enough to have known some of them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love this thread. Alma Thomas, another DC local.

You can see her work here:
https://www.si.edu/exhibitions/composing-color-paintings-alma-thomas%3Aevent-exhib-6537

Thank you for reminding me to go see this.

[Anonymous]

Alma Thomas
Born Columbus, GA 1891-died Washington, DC 1978

Alma Thomas was a teacher and artist who developed a powerful form of abstract painting late in life. From the mid-1960s, she produced brilliantly colored and richly patterned works intimately connected to the natural world.

Thomas was raised in a household that emphasized culture and learning. In 1907, her family moved to Washington, DC, in search of greater educational opportunities and relief from racial violence in the South. In 1924, Thomas became Howard University’s first fine arts graduate, encouraged by the art department’s founding professor, James V. Herring. She then began an esteemed thirty-five-year teaching career at Shaw Junior High School. In addition, Thomas earned an MA in arts education at Columbia University in 1934 and studied art at American University during the 1950s. A significant figure in Washington’s art world, Thomas was associated with the Little Paris Group of artists and Howard University’s Gallery of Art. She was also instrumental in the 1943 formation of the cutting-edge Barnett Aden Gallery, among the first Black-owned galleries in the United States.

She told the New York Times in 1977 that she had "never married a man but my art. What man would have ever appreciated what I was up to?" She wrote, "Once upon a time it was said, don't die having a "Miss" on your tombstone. I feel very proud of having maintain[ed] my Miss. I say that Miss stand[s] for all the Jackasses I missed in life."  She added, "A fine man is a delight, but for God sake don't get entangled with a Jackass."

https://americanart.si.edu/artist/alma-thomas-4778

[Anonymous]

Percy Lavon Julian

Percy Lavon Julian (April 11, 1899 – April 19, 1975) was an American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants

https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/scientific-biographies/percy-lavon-julian/

[Anonymous]

9 Famous Black Mathematicians and Their Contributions

Their contributions throughout US history are numerous and significant! Math & Movement wants to highlight the black mathematicians who have greatly impacted our nation and the future of mathematics.

https://mathandmovement.com/famous-black-mathematicians-and-their-contributions/

[Anonymous]

Mae Jemison, who achieved a trifecta of physician, engineer, and astronaut. Born in 1956.

https://www.nasa.gov/people/mae-jemison-m-d/

Dr. Mae Jemison, physician, engineer, educator and entrepreneur, was the first woman of color in the world to go into space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour and was a NASA astronaut for six years. She is the Principal for the 100 Year Starship Project and her leadership and vision provides guidance and direction for the foundation and in fulfilling its goal of ensuring all the capabilities for a successful human journey to another star will exist by 2112.

Dr. Jemison started The Jemison Group, Inc., a technology consulting firm integrating critical socio-cultural issues into the design, development and implementation of engineering and science projects. As an Environmental Studies professor at Dartmouth College, she taught classes on and researched technology design and sustainable development with special emphasis on developing countries. She is a worldwide respected voice in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and is founder of the non-profit Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence.

[and it goes on and on]

[Anonymous]

PS: Sorry, that should be DR Mae Jemison.

[Anonymous]

Alice Ball, who did groundbreaking work in the treatment of leprosy as part of her master's thesis in chemistry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Ball

Alice Augusta Ball (July 24, 1892 – December 31, 1916) was an American chemist who developed the "Ball Method" for making ethyl ester derivatives of chaulmoogra oil, which were used as a treatment for leprosy during the early 20th century. She was the first woman and first African American to receive a master's degree from the University of Hawaiʻi, and was also the university's first female and African American chemistry professor. She died at age 24 and her contributions to science were not recognized until many years after her death.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Jane C. Wright, surgeon and pioneer in blood cancer research, and founding member of ASCO (the American Society of Clinical Oncology).

https://connection.asco.org/magazine/exclusive-coverage/memoriam-asco-remembers-founding-member-dr-jane-cooke-wright

Dr. Wright’s leadership at ASCO, her contributions to the field of oncology, and her dedication and passion for finding a cure for cancer were evident throughout her life and career. She graduated with honors from New York Medical College in 1945, interned at Bellevue Hospital, and completed her residency at Harlem Hospital. Following her residency, she continued on as a visiting physician at Harlem Hospital and was also hired as a staff physician with the New York City Public Schools.

At a time when chemotherapy treatment was largely thought of as experimental, Dr. Wright pioneered the use of anticancer agents and developed new techniques for administering cancer chemotherapy. In 1949, she left the New York City Public School system to work with her father, who served as the Director of the Cancer Research Foundation at Harlem Hospital. Together, the two began testing a new agent on human leukemias and lymphomas, with some success. Several years later, Dr. Wright began her work at the New York University Medical Center as the Director of Cancer Chemotherapy Research.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Dr. Wright to the President’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke. ...

[Anonymous]

How about an African American husband-and-wife team?

Dr. Gladys W. Royal used her PhD in biochemistry to develop radiation therapies and establish the fundamental work necessary for the development of human bone marrow transplants. Born in 1926.

Dr. George C. Royal, Jr., with a PhD in microbiology, worked on the same projects with his wife above and went on to become the Dean of the Graduate School at North Carolina A&T College and then professor and chair of microbiology at Howard University.

https://chemistry.wustl.edu/news/celebrating-black-history-month-2022

[Anonymous]

Asian here. Love this thread.

[Anonymous]

Running tally of names so far in this this thread:

- John Morton Finney
- Charles Richard Drew
- Katherine Johnson
- Garrett Morgan
- Dr. Sarah Marinda Loguen Fraser
- Ernest Everett Just
- Charles Hamilton Houston
- Jester Hairston
- Onesimus
- Richard Allen
- Paul Jennings
- Maude E. Callen
- Henrietta Lacks
- Alma Thomas
- Clementine Hunter
- Clara Hale
- Percy Lavon Julian
- Dr. Mae Jemison
- Alice Ball
- Dr. Jane C. Wright
- Dr. Gladys W. Royal
- Dr. George C. Royal, Jr.

And a wish that "we could name and recognize the blue collar workers/unschooled black Americans who, literally, built this country. So many untold, unrecognized contributions and achievements."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asian here. Love this thread.

Woman of German heritage, and I am here for this. I summarized what has already been posted, as there is such a richness of heritage that we certainly do not have to repeat ourselves in celebrating it.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, theoretical physicist with her doctorate from MIT.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shirley-Ann-Jackson

Shirley Ann Jackson (born August 5, 1946, Washington, D.C., U.S.) is an American scientist and educator and the first Black woman to receive a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Jackson helped develop technologies that made communication faster and easier and was an advocate for minority representation in academia, particularly in STEM disciplines.

...In 1973 Jackson became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. from MIT, which she received in particle physics.

Jackson began her physics career at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (later Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois. She then served as a visiting scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. In 1976 she returned to the United States to work at Bell Laboratories, where she conducted research on two-dimensional condensed matter systems. While at Bell, she met her future husband, Morris A. Washington, another prominent physicist. Jackson remained at Bell until 1991; her research there contributed to the inventions of the touch-tone telephone, fiber-optic cables, caller ID, and call waiting. From 1991 to 1995 she taught at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She also began to work in public policy, offering Gov. Tom Kean her input on how to bolster university science and technology programs in the state of New Jersey.