Ranging from before the Civil War to the late 1960s, when the Civil Rights movement sparked greater scientific opportunities, this well-researched and fascinating book celebrates the lives and accomplishments of African American women chemists.
Written by Jeanette E. Brown, an African American chemist herself, the book examines the life and career of such groundbreaking women as Josephine Silone Yates - born on Long Island in 1852 - who was the first black woman head of a college science department in America; Alice Augusta Ball, a pharmaceitucal chemist who in 1915 developed an effective treatment for leprosy; Eslanda Goode Robeson, who earned a masters in Analytical Chemistry at Columbia and a PhD in Anthropology from Hartford Seminary (and was also the wife of the singer and actor Paul Robeson); Dr. Marie Maynard Daly, the first African American woman to receive a PhD in chemistry in the United States - in 1947, from Columbia University; Johnny Hines Watts Prothro, who was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development, the first African American and the first woman so named; and the biological chemist Lynda Marie Jordan, who rose from poverty to become the first person in the history of Harvard University to simultaneously earn degrees from the Divinity School and the School of Public Health.
Brown examines each woman's motivation to pursue chemistry, and she describes their struggles to obtain an education and their efforts to succeed in a field in which there were few African-American men, much less African American women.
The book looks at chemists in academia, industry, and government, as well as chemical engineers, and it concludes with a chapter on the future of African American women chemists, which will be of interest to all women interested in a career in science.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
1. The reason for this book and why these women were chosen
2. Resources for historical background
3, Early pioneers
-Josephine Silone Yates
-Beebe Steven Lynk
-Alice Augusta Ball
-Eslanda Goode Robeson
-Angie Turner King
-Mary Elliott Hill
4. Marie Maynard Daly
5. Chemical educators
-Johnnie Hines Watts Prothro
-Rubye Prigmore Torrey
-Gladys W. Royal
-Cecile Hoover Edwards
-Allene Johnson
-Mary Antoinette Schiesler
-Gloria Long Anderson
-Linda C. Meade-Tollin
-Lynda Marie Jordan
6. Industry and Government Labs
-Esther A. H. Hopkins
-Betty Wright Harris
-Sinah Estelle Kelley
-Katheryn Emanual Lawson
7. From Academia to Board Room and Science Policy
-Reatha Clark King
-Margaret Ellen Mayo Tolbert
-Cheryl L. Shavers
8. Chemical Engineers
-Lilia Ann Abron
-Jennie Patrick
9. My story
-Jeanette Elizabeth Brown
10. Next steps
Notes
Publications
Historical time line
Bibliography
Index
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