Black Scientists and Technicians
Of the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and Technicians,
Wisdom Institute University Excerpted from BlackPast.org
Knox
Massie
Delaney
Wilkins
Taylor
Quarterman
Russell
Reed
Chavis
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and Technicians,
Wisdom Institute University Excerpted from BlackPast.org
Omohundro
Scientists
William Jacob Knox
Lawrence A. Knox
Samuel Proctor Massie
Moddie Daniel Taylor
J. Ernest Wilkins
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and Technicians,
Wisdom Institute University Excerpted from BlackPast.org
Technicians
Sherman Carter
Harold Delaney
Harold Evans
Ralph Garner-Chavis
Jasper Brown Jeffries
Lloyd Albert Quarterman
Robert Johnson Omohundro
George Warren Reed
Edwin Robert Russell
Benjamin Franklin Scott
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and
Technicians, Wisdom Institute University
Excerpted from BlackPast.org
Dr. William Jacob Knox
Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts on
January 5, 1904, William Knox earned his
Master’s degree and his Ph.D. from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
in 1929 and 1935 respectively.
He left in 1942 to become chair of the
chemistry department at Talladega
College. He joined a team of scientists at
Columbia University who were devising a way
to separate the two uranium isotopes using
gaseous diffusion, a complex process that
made use of uranium hexafluoride, an
extremely corrosive material. Though he
did not know it at the time, his work was
essential to the development of the atom
bomb.
Knox also holds the distinction of being
the only Black supervisor on the project.
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and
Technicians, Wisdom Institute
University Excerpted from
BlackPast.org
Samuel Proctor Massie
Born in 1919 in North Little Rock, Arkansas
became a distinguished professor of chemistry.
Massie said his desire to find a cure for his
father's asthma spurred him to become a
chemist.
As he neared the completion of his doctorate in
chemistry at Iowa State University in 1942,
Massie lost his draft deferment. When he was
about to be drafted in his home state of
Arkansas, his major professor at Iowa State,
Henry Gilman, who was already working on
the Manhattan Project, assigned Massie to his
research team. Massie performed his research
at Iowa State University from 1942 to 1946
where he helped in the development of uranium
isotopes for the atomic bomb.
In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson appointed
Massie to the Naval Academy in Annapolis,
Maryland where he became the first African
American professor at the institution.
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and Technicians, Wisdom
Institute University Excerpted from BlackPast.org
J. Ernest Wilkins
Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Jr. is often described as one of
America’s most important contemporary
mathematicians. At 13, he became the University
of Chicago’s youngest student. Wilkins continued
his studies there, earning bachelor, master, and
doctorate degrees in mathematics. When he
finished his Ph.D. at 19, he was hailed by the
national press as a “Negro genius.” His father was
assistant Secretary of Labor during the Dwight D.
Eisenhower administration.
After completing his Ph.D., Wilkins taught
mathematics for one year at Tuskegee Institute
(1943-1944) before being recruited as Physicist to
work at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the
University of Chicago where he contributed to the
Manhattan Project. Wilkins worked there between
1944 and 1946. After which he obtained BME (‘57)
MME (‘60) degrees in Mechanical Engineering.
His greatest contribution to scholarship was the
development of mathematical models to explain
gamma radiation and his subsequent work on
developing a shielding against gamma radiation.
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and Technicians,
Wisdom Institute University Excerpted from BlackPast.org
Moddie Daniel Taylor
Taylor was born in Nymph, Alabama on March
3, 1912, the son of Herbert L. Taylor and Celeste
(Oliver) Taylor. The Taylors later moved to St.
Louis where Herbert worked as a postal
clerk. Moddie Taylor attended Charles H.
Sumner High, graduating in 1931. Taylor
graduated in 1935 as the valedictorian of his
class and received an M.S. from Lincoln
University in 1939 and a Ph.D. in 1943.
His worked as an associate chemist for the
project for the next two years, involved in
analyzing rare earth metals, elements of which
are the products of oxidized metals and have
special properties.
His contributions to the project earned him a
Certificate of Merit from Secretary of War
Robert P. Patterson in 1946. In 1960, Taylor's
textbook, First Principles of Chemistry, was
published. It soon became one of the major
texts in use in colleges and universities
throughout the United States.
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and Technicians,
Wisdom Institute University Excerpted from BlackPast.org
Harold Delaney
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August
24, 1919, Harold Delaney was one of several
African American scientists to work on the
Manhattan Project in World War II. After
completing his M.A. degree, Delaney worked as
a chemist on the Manhattan Project between
1943 and 1945 at the University of Chicago.
He later returned to Howard University to
complete his doctoral degree and became one of
the first two graduate students to earn a Ph.D. in
chemistry in 1958 from Howard.
Delaney held several academic and industrial
positions over his career, working as a research
chemist at E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co for
three years (1966-1969), in 1974 Delaney became
the first male president of Manhattanville
College, a woman’s college in Purchase, New
York.
He later served as vice president of the
American Association of State Colleges and
Universities headquartered in Washington,
D.C. He retired from that post in 1987.
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and Technicians,
Wisdom Institute University Excerpted from BlackPast.org
Lloyd Albert Quarterman
Born May 31, 1918 in Philadelphia, Lloyd Albert
Quarterman, a chemist, was one of the few African
American scientists and technicians to work on the
Manhattan Project. After receiving his bachelor's
degree from St. Augustine’s in 1943, he was quickly
recruited by the War Department to work on the
Manhattan Project. Quarterman was a member of the
team of scientists who isolated the isotope of
uranium (U 238) necessary for the fission process,
which was essential to the creation of the atom bomb
In 1967 he developed a corrosive resistant "window"
made of diamonds in order to better study hydrogen
fluoride. His innovation was called the "diamond
window."
He also created a xenon compound which surprised
the world of chemistry because it was believed that
xenon was an “inert” gas and supposedly could not
be combined with other atoms. At the time of his
death, in 1982, Quarterman had initiated work on a
project to develop “synthetic blood” but
encountered ethical and political opposition to his
research.
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and Technicians,
Wisdom Institute University Excerpted from BlackPast.org
Edwin Robert Russell
Born in Columbia, South Carolina on June 19, 1913,
Edwin Roberts Russell worked on the Manhattan
Project. Russell earned his B.S. degree in 1935 from
Benedict College, an (HBCU) located in Columbia,
South Carolina and continued his education at
Howard University where he earned an M.S.
degree in chemistry in 1937.
He entered the University of Chicago to pursue a
Ph.D. in surface chemistry and became one of the
scientists directly involved in the production of
atomic energy. His efforts focused on isolating
plutonium from uranium. Other African American
scientists who worked with Russell included
Harold Delaney, Moddie Taylor, Jasper Brown
Jeffries, and Benjamin F. Scott.
Russell later obtained eleven U.S. patents
including two focused on the processes of
isolating plutonium from uranium (U.S. Patent
2,855,629, Oct. 7, 1958; U.S. Patent 2,992,249, July
11, 1961).
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and
Technicians, Wisdom Institute
University Excerpted from
BlackPast.org
George Warren Reed
Born in Washington D.C on September 25,
1920, Reed spent his entire career as a chemist
specializing in a variety of fields within the
discipline. In 1942 he received a BS degree
from Howard University and two years later
an M.S. Both degrees were in chemistry. He
then completed his PhD at the University of
Chicago in 1952, after his work with the
Manhattan Project.
Reed worked on obtaining enough fissionable
uranium to produce and sustain a nuclear
reaction.
He was also on the lunar sample planning
team with the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) from 1972 to
1980. After the first moon landing Reed was
given the opportunity to analyze the sample
of moon rock in a nuclear reactor; he
eventually concluded that the rock
contained minerals not found on earth.
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and
Technicians, Wisdom Institute
University Excerpted from
BlackPast.org
Ralph Garner-Chavis
Ralph Alexander Gardner, hard plastics pioneer
and one of the scientists and technicians who
worked on the Manhattan Project which developed
the atomic bomb, was born December 3, 1922 in
Cleveland, Ohio, son of Vivian and Clarence
Gardner.
He engaged in highly classified plutonium research
which was crucial in the development of the atomic
bomb.
From 1947 to 1949 he worked as a waiter before
finding work as a chemist for Standard Oil
Company in Cleveland. He returned to graduate
school at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio,
earning a master's degree in 1952 and a Ph.D. in
1959; in 1985 he then began employment
at Molecular Technology Corporation where he
eventually became Vice President of Research.
He added "Chavis" to his surname later in life to
honor John Chavis who in 1792 became the
first African American to enroll
in Princeton University.
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and
Technicians, Wisdom Institute
University Excerpted from
BlackPast.org
Robert Johnson Omohundro
Born in Norfolk, VA in 1921 Omohundro graduated
from Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk
and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a
master’s in physics from Howard University in
Washington, DC. After graduation he worked as a
radio tester with the Western Electric Company.
Omohundro's contribution to the atom bomb project
was his work as a mass spectroscopist. Mass
spectrometry (MS) is a common technique that
scientists use to help identify particles in samples by
their mass. During World War II Omohundro, who
worked at a secret facility in Arizona, was also
responsible for developing devices to locate and
measure radiation emissions from atomic warheads.
From1948 to 1984, Omohundro continued
developing technology at the Naval Research
Laboratory in Washington, DC. Which included
devices that prevent the propagation of plutonium
at airfields. In 1963 and 1971, he obtained two
patents in the field of nuclear physics.
Over the course of his career Omohundro authored
and co-authored 40 scientific articles.
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and
Technicians, Wisdom Institute
University Excerpted from
BlackPast.org
BlackPast.org
Mathematicians of the African Diaspora
Manhattan Project: Black Scientists and
Technicians, Wisdom Institute
University Excerpted from
BlackPast.org