People, Locations, Episodes

Randolph Bromery, Geophysicist born

*Randolph Bromery was born on this date in 1926. He is an African American Geophysicist, educator. Bromery was born and raised in Cumberland, Maryland during the Depression.

Dr. William Conan Davis, Biochemist born

*Dr. William Davis was born on this date in 1926.  He was a Black research scientist, professor emeritus (biochemistry), and inventor.   William Conan Davis was born in Waycross, Georgia, to Kince Charles Davis and his wife Laura Jane (née Cooper. Kince Davis’ family was Ethiopian Jews, and he read Hebrew but not English.  He was a railway construction engineer and crew boss, a position that […]

James Forte, Chemical Lab Assistant born

*James Forte was born on this date in 1927. He was a Black Lab Assistant and health director. From Brooklyn, New York, Forde, in 1944, was hired by the Union Carbide and Carbon Company and began working on the Manhattan Project. He worked at the Nash Garage Building at Columbia University, where scientists worked on […]

Alma Levant Hayden, Chemist born.

*Alma Levant Hayden, a Black chemist, was born on this date in 1927 in Greenville, South Carolina. She graduated from South Carolina State College with honors in 1947.  Originally planning to be a nurse, she found herself so interested in chemistry that she gained a master’s degree in chemistry from Howard University. Levant joined the National Institute of […]

Morris Miller, Nurse, and Health Care Advocate born

Morris Miller was born on this date in 1927. He was an African American nurse and health care advocate.

Florence Saunders Farley, Psychologist and Educator born

*Florence Saunders Farley was born on this date in 1928.  She was a Black psychologist, educator, politician, and community activist. Florence Saunders was born in Roanoke, Virginia, to Neoda and Stacious Saunders. She attended Harrison Elementary School in Roanoke. After graduating as the salutatorian of her class from Lucy Addison High School in 1946, Farley […]

Alyce Gullattee, Activist born

*Alyce Gullattee was born on this date in 1928.  She was a Black psychologist, educator, and activist.  Born and raised in Detroit, her family had moved from Georgia during the Great Migration. Neither of her parents made it to high school, and her father worked at a Chrysler plant as a furnace stoker. But Gullattee’s […]

Eugene Hickman Sr., Pharmacist, and Educator born

*The birth of Eugene Hickman Sr. is celebrated on this date in 1928. He was a Black Pharmacist and educator. From Louisiana, Hickman excelled in his pre-collegiate education in the segregated public schools of Louisiana and Texas. After a tour of duty in the United States Army, he enrolled at Texas Southern University. He completed […]

Mary Munson Runge, Pharmacist born

*Mary Munson Runge was born on this date in 1928.  She was a Black Pharmacist and medical rights advocate.  She was born Mary Lowery in Donaldsonville, Louisiana.  Runge’s father, John Harvey Lowery, was a pharmacy owner and a physician, notable for running the first pharmacy in Donaldsonville.   Runge graduated from the Xavier University of […]

Betty Smith Williams, Nurse, and Administrator born

*Betty Smith Williams’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1929. She was a Black nurse and administrator. Betty Smith was born in South Bend, Indiana. Her father was a minority rights activist and member of the NAACP chapter. She was raised to advocate for equality and did just that. In 1954, Williams earned her […]

Eleanora Green, Mathematician born

*Eleanor Green was born on this date in 1929. She ws a retired Black mathematician and educator.   From Norfolk, VA, she was one of six children of Lillian Vaughn Green, a former domestic worker, and George Herbert Green, a postal letter carrier. Though neither of her parents attended college, they raised all six children […]

Meredith Gourdine, Physics Researcher, and Engineer born

Meredith C. Gourdine was born on this date in 1929. He was an African American physicist, and engineer.

He was born in Newark, N.J. he received a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 1953, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1960. While at Cornell, he ran track and won a silver medal in the long jump at the Olympic Games in 1952.

Ida Owens, Biochemist, and Researcher born

On this date in 1929, Ida Stephens Owens was born. She is an African American biochemist.

She was born in Newark, and received a Ph.D. in Biology-Physiology from Duke University in 1967. At the National Institutes of Health (NIH), biochemist Dr. Owens conducted studies in the genetics of detoxification enzymes. This research was aimed at shedding light on how the human body defends itself against poison.

Owens is currently with the Section of Genetic Disorders of Drug Metabolism, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD.

Jessie Price, Microbiologist born

*Jessie Price was born on this date in 1930. She was a Black veterinary microbiologist. She isolated and reproduced the cause of the most common life-threatening disease in duck farming in the 1950s and developed vaccines for this and other avian diseases. Early life and education.  Jessie Isabelle Price was born in Montrose, Pennsylvania. Her […]

Samuel Kountz, Doctor, and Kidney Sepcialist born

*Samuel Kountz was born on this date in 1930. He was an African American doctor and kidney specialist.

From Lexa, Ark. the son of a Baptist minister, at the age of eight, young Kountz, decided to become a doctor. He failed the entrance exam at Arkansas AM&N College and then appealed to the college president, who gave him another chance. Kountz subsequently earned A’s and B’s.