Nonetheless, African-American men and women made important contributions to the Manhattan Project during World War II.
[4][5][6][7] They contributed to the theoretical understanding of nuclear physics (Wilkins), the extraction and processing of the fissionable uranium isotope, Uranium-235 (Knox, Quarterman), the use of polonium as an initiator (Parker), and the development of scientific instruments to detect radioactive materials and measure radiation (Omohundro).
At southern research facilities like Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, segregation and discriminatory policies were strictly enforced.
[11] The Manhattan Project was a massive research and development initiative led by the United States during World War II, to design and build the first atomic weapons.
Key sites included SAM Laboratories at Columbia University ,where researchers considered the theoretical foundations, feasibility and design issues of dealing with atomic particles while carrying out experiments with the Columbia cyclotron;[12][13] the Clinton Engineer Works at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where researchers developed methods for uranium processing, enrichment, and plutonium production;[14] the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, where the first nuclear reactor was designed and built;[15] the Hanford Engineer Works, where plutonium was produced and separated from uranium;[16] and the Los Alamos Laboratory, where nuclear weapon development was carried out.
A number of the African-American scientists and technicians continued to work at the Argonne National Laboratory, while others sought jobs in teaching and industry.
[1][2] Once the project ceased to be a secret, publications like Ebony hailed African-American scientists and technicians as role models and "progressive heroes".
[21] Between 1916 and 1940, many African Americans moved from rural areas to cities, and from the southern to the north and western United States, in search of better economic and social conditions.
[2] The educational paths open to African Americans can be illustrated by looking at specific examples of scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project.
[25] Another Philadelphian, Harold Delaney, received his bachelor's and master's degrees from traditionally black Howard University before joining the project.
[29] Pressure from African American A. Philip Randolph and other labor unionists led to the signing of Executive Order 8802 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941.
"[31]The order further stated, “There shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries of Government because of race, creed, color, or national origin”.
[30] A study assessing the involvement of African Americans at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge between 1942 and 1958 was prepared for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park as of September 2019.
[30] The SAM Laboratories at Columbia University in New York City employed African American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project.
Willard Libby appointed William Knox to be the supervisor of the otherwise all-white Corrosion Section of the nuclear research team at Columbia, the highest position held by any African American in the Manhattan Project.
[30] The University of Chicago admitted African American students from its founding in 1890, and Arthur Compton, the director of the Met Lab, supported the hiring of a diverse workforce.
[1]: 9 A number of the African Americans at Met Lab were University of Chicago graduates, including Jesse Ernest Wilkins (Ph.D. 1942),[1] Moddie Daniel Taylor (Ph.D. 1943), and Jasper Brown Jeffries (Masters, 1940).
[38] Mathematician and engineer Jesse Ernest Wilkins and Ralph Gardner-Chavis initially worked with Enrico Fermi on the study of plutonium.
[34] When Wigner's team was slated to move from the Chicago Met Lab to Oak Ridge, it was considered impossible for Wilkins to go with them and hold a post comparable to his existing scientific position.
[43][44] William Jacob Knox Jr., a physical chemist, joined Columbia in 1943 and was promoted to the head of the Corrosion section of the nuclear research team.
He was chiefly responsible for the design and construction of a distillation system that used electrolysis to purify large quantities of hydrogen fluoride (also extremely dangerous), which was used to isolate the isotope U-235 from uranium.
The Monsanto Chemical Company led top-secret research work on the use of polonium and beryllium for the "Urchin" initiator used in the implosion design for Fat Man.
[3] At least two African American scientists, Jasper Brown Jeffries and Jesse Ernest Wilkins Jr., were among the tiny group of people aware by July 1945 of the proposal to bomb Japan.
James Forde, a 17-year-old laboratory assistant who cleaned beakers and tubes in a sulfuric acid bath, recalls his moment of realization: 'I saw the headline where we had dropped the bomb.
Some African-Americans saw inclusion in the scientific community of the Manhattan Project as evidence that African Americans had earned and shown themselves worthy of civil rights.
Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Walter Francis White and other African Americans critiqued the bomb and its implications in black newspapers.
[78][11] Roy Wilkins wrote an editorial in the September 1945 issue of The Crisis connecting use of atomic weapons and racist portrayals of the Japanese as subhuman, asking "Who is barbarian and who is civilized?
[79] Langston Hughes summed up the concern in an August 18, 1945 Chicago Defender column, concluding through the voice of "Simple" that "Japs is colored.
[78] Those who viewed the atomic bomb in the context of anti-colonialism, internationalism, and the development of world community tended to be more critical of it than those who focused on national opportunities for civil rights and citizenship.
I dropped out of school and went into the chemical warfare service with Dr. Gilman at Ames.”[56] After the war, Massie built an exceptional career as an organic chemist, researching anti-bacterial agents and the treatment of malaria, herpes, and meningitis.