People, Locations, Episodes

The Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses Begins

*On this date in 1917, we celebrate the first class of the Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses (MTSCN). Mrs. Ludie Andrews founded MCSTN, which became part of the Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing program. This was an accredited nursing school for black students. Municipal School students took courses at Spelman College and completed clinical work at Hughes […]

Carolyn B. Parker, Physicist, and Professor born

*Carolyn Parker was born on this date in 1917.  She was a Black physicist and professor.  Carolyn Beatrice Parker was born in Gainesville, Florida. Her father, Julius A. Parker, was a successful physician and pharmacist who graduated from Meharry Medical College, the first medical school in the South for Blacks. Her mother was Della Ella […]

Lloyd Noel Ferguson, Chemist born

*Lloyd Noel Ferguson was born on this date in 1918. He was an African American chemist, author and educator.

Mattiedna Johnson, Nurse, and Laboratory Technician born

*Mattiedna Johnson was born on this date in 1918. She was a Black nurse and laboratory technician. Mattiedna Johnson was born to sharecroppers in Mississippi. She weighed three and a half pounds at birth and was the fifth child born in her family. With concern about his daughter’s low birth weight, Johnson’s father pleaded to God to […]

Lloyd Quarterman, Chemist born

*Lloyd Quarterman was born on this date in 1918.  He was a Black chemist and scientist. Born in Philadelphia, Lloyd Albert Quarterman developed an interest in chemistry from a young age partly by using toy chemistry sets his parents gave him.  He attended St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he developed a reputation […]

Kathrine G. Johnson, NASA Scientist born

Katherine G. Johnson was born on this date in 1918. She is an African American physicist, space scientist, and mathematician.

She was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and was trained as a mathematician and physicist in West Virginia.

Harold Amos, Scientist, and Teacher born

*Harold Amos was born on this date in 1918. He was an African American microbiologist and professor.

Charles H. Wright, Physician and Philanthropist, born.

*Charles H. Wright was born on this date in 1918. He was a Black physician, author, and philanthropist. Charles Howard Wright was born in Dothan, Alabama. He graduated from Southeast High School in 1935. He attended Alabama State College (now Alabama State University), graduating in 1939, and entered Meharry Medical College, graduating in 1943. Wright served two […]

Herman Cooke, Entomologist born

*Herman Cooke was born on this date in 1918.  He was a Black Entomologist and Zoologist.  Herman Glen Cooke was from Petersburg, Virginia. He received a Bachelor of Science from Virginia State College in 1936 and a Master of Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1939.  Cooke earned a Ph.D. in Zoology from the […]

David Blackwell, Math Professor born

David Blackwell was born on this date in 1919. He was an African American mathematician and professor.

David Harold Blackwell grew up in Centralia, Illinois, a town on the “Mason-Dixon Line.” He was raised in a family which expected and supported working hard. As a schoolboy, Blackwell did not care for algebra and trigonometry.

Samuel Massie, Chemist, and Teacher born

Samuel Massie, a brilliant African American chemist and teacher, was born on this date in 1919.

Charles Anderson, Meteorologist born

*Charles Edward Anderson was born on this date in 1919. He was an African American scientist specializing in meteorology.

John L.S. Holloman Jr., Doctor, and Activist born

*John L.S. Sullivan was born on this date in 1919. He was an African American Physician and activist.

Jane Cooke Wright, Cancer Researcher born

*On this date 1919, Jane Cooke Wright was born. She was an African American doctor and cancer researcher.

Carl Fraction, Minnesota Chemist born

Carl Fraction was born on this date in 1919. He was an African American microbiologist, scientist, and photographer.

Carl Harrison Fraction was born in St. Paul, MN, to James and Opal Fraction, one of six siblings. When he was young, the family moved to Iowa. Carl graduated from Des Moines North High School in 1937, where he played in the high school band.

Fraction enlisted in the Air Force and was discharged in 1945, but he later contracted tuberculosis. While in the Air Force, he learned photography.