Samuel Proctor Massie, Jr. (July 3, 1919 – April 10, 2005) was a chemist who studied a variety of chemicals that contributed towards the development of therapeutic drugs, including the chemistry of phenothiazine.

As one of the African American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project to develop atomic bombs in World War II Massie worked with uranium isotopes.

Massie was named one of the top 75 distinguished contributors to chemistry in history by Chemical and Engineering News.

[3][1] When he returned to Arkansas for the funeral, he sought an extension of his military draft deferment, and was rejected with a racial slur about being over-educated.

[2] Massie worked in the Ames Laboratory, researching the conversion of uranium isotopes into liquid compounds that could be used in the atomic bomb.

[2] He worked on the Manhattan Project from 1943 to 1945, developing keloid scars on his back due to radiation exposure, and witnessing colleagues next to him being caught in a laboratory explosion.

Massie was appointed to the faculty of the United States Naval Academy by President Johnson in 1966, its first African-American professor.

[1] During his tenure in Annapolis, Massie served on the academy’s equal employment opportunity committee and helped establish a black studies program.

[13] In 1994, the U.S. Department of Energy created the Dr. Samuel P. Massie Chair of Excellence, a $14.7 million grant to nine historically black colleges and one for Hispanic students to further environmental research.

[16][9] Across her career, Gloria Massie was a psychology professor at Bowie State University,[5] and was a social columnist for Jet magazine.