Just persevered for science

As a former NOAA scientist, I was interested to learn during Black Histor y Month of an African American named Everett Just. He was a scientist who did pioneering work in cell division and fer tilization, for which he was honored with the NAACP Spingarn Medal.

He was born in 1883 in South Carolina. Despite the roadblocks he faced as a black person, he went on to graduate from Dartmouth College, magna cum laude.

Despite his excellent academic record, he was not permitted to give the commencement speech. The faculty “decided it would be a faux pas to allow the only black in the graduating class to address the crowd of parents, alumni, and benefactors. It would have made too glaring the fact, that Just had won just about ever y prize imaginable.”

He went on earn his PH.D. and became a decorated, respected biologist and scientist. Unable to pursue science in the U.S., thanks to racism, he decided to relocate to Europe.

There he was able to have access to the space and labs to do the research was dedicated to. He went on to pioneer many areas on the physiology of development, including fer tilization, experimental par thenogenesis, hydration, cell division, dehydration in living cells and ultraviolet carcinogenic radiation ef fects on cells.

“We feel the beauty of nature because we are part of nature and because we know that however much in our separate domains we abstract from the unity of nature, this unity remains. Although we may deal with particulars, we return finally to the whole pattern woven out of these.” (Ernest Everett Just)

GARY GREENE

Longmont