Commentary: African American Scientists and Inventors
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Herman Russell Branson (August 14, 1914 – June 7, 1995) was an African American physicist, best known for his research on the alpha helix protein structure. He was also the president of two colleges.
Branson received his B.S. from Virginia State College in 1936, and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cincinnati, under the direction of Boris Padowski, in 1939. After a stint at Dillard University, he joined Howard University in 1941 as an assistant professor of physics and chemistry. He remained at Howard for 27 years, achieving increasingly important positions, eventually becoming head of the physics department, director of a program in experimental science and mathematics, and working on the Office of Naval Research and Atomic Energy Commission Projects in Physics at Howard University.
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In 1948, Branson took a leave and spent time at the California Institute of Technology, in the laboratory of the chemist Linus Pauling. There he was assigned work on the structure of proteins, specifically to use his mathematical abilities to determine possible helical structures that would fit both the available x-ray crystallography data and a set of chemical restrictions outlined by Pauling. After some months of work, Branson handed in a report narrowing the possible structures to two helixes, a tighter coil Pauling termed "alpha," and a looser helix called "gamma." Branson then returned to Howard to work on other projects.
Branson went on to a significant career, eventually serving as president of Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, from 1968–1970, and then president of Lincoln University until his retirement in 1985. He was active in increasing federal funding for higher education, and helped found the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education in 1969.
In 1984 Branson wrote Pauling biographers Victor and Mildred Goertzel implying that his contribution to the alpha helix had been greater than the final paper indicated. “I took my work to Pauling who told me that he thought they [the proposed alpha and gamma helixes] were too tight, that he thought that a protein molecule should have a much larger radius so that water molecules could fit down inside and cause the protein to swell,” he wrote. “I went back and worked unsuccessfully to find such a structure.” When he received Pauling’s note with the draft manuscript, Branson wrote, “I interpreted this letter as establishing that the alpha and gamma in my paper were correct and that the subsequent work done was cleaning up or verifying. The differences were nil.
Branson was co-inventor of the alpha helix and perhaps deserved a share of the Nobel prize. As the story goes somehow Linus Pauling got Branson excluded from the prize [new Yorker mag]....Read More
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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On on hand there is this... support among white Americans for voter ID laws increases when that question is asked alongside of a photo of African Americans voting, according to a new study. Talking Point Memo: White People Support Voter ID Laws More After Seeing Black People Voting.
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The new University of Delaware study found that 67 percent of white Americans supported voter ID laws after the question was posed to them with text only or accompanied by a photo of white people voting. But that number increased to 73 percent when the same question is asked with an accompanying photo of African-Americans voting.
"Our findings suggest that public opinion about voter ID laws can be racialized by simply showing images of African American people," David C. Wilson, who helped supervise the study, said. "The resulting increase in support for the laws happens independently of —even after controlling for— political ideology and negative attitudes about African Americans."
The spike, from 67 percent to 73 percent, may not be huge but it's still statistically significant, The Washington Post noted.
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On the other hand... studies suggest the overwhelming motivation behind voter ID laws is hyper-partisanship, not racism. Slate: Tribal Politics.
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What’s interesting about this study—besides its immediate conclusions—is how it fits into an emerging picture of what motivates voter ID laws. For as much as proponents say they want to stop voter fraud and protect ballot “integrity,” more and more research suggests race as a critical factor in where these laws emerge, and who supports them.
Take a study conducted earlier this year by Christian Grose, a political scientist at the University of South California, and Matthew Mendez, a graduate student. Grose and Mendez wanted to see how bias factored into representation and constituent response—would a lawmaker who supported voter ID still respond to her minority constituents, or would she ignore them? To that end, they sent emails to legislators in 14 states with large Latino populations, asking what documentation they needed to vote. This was the email template:
Hello (Representative/Senator NAME),
My name is (voter NAME) and I have heard a lot in the news lately about identification being required at the polls. I do not have a driver’s license. Can I still vote in November? Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,
(voter NAME)
What’s important to know is that these were states where a license wasn’t needed—recipients could just answer yes and move on. One group of legislators received emails from a voter called “Jacob Smith,” while the other received email from a “Santiago Rodriguez.” What’s more, one-half of the emails were in Spanish and one-half were in English. In measuring the data, Grose and Mendez found that lawmakers who supported voter ID were substantially less likely to respond to the Latino constituent; roughly 45 percent of voter ID supporters replied to “Smith” versus the roughly 27 percent who replied to “Rodriguez.” There was a difference among voter ID opponents as well, but it was small—under 10 percent.
From this, we can’t know if bias prompted the lawmakers to support voter ID, but—as Grose notes in an interview with NPR—“It’s fair to say the Republicans who sponsored such bills seem to be biased when it comes to responding to the Latino name versus the Anglo name.”
Likewise, a 2013 study from researchers Keith G. Bentele and Erin E. O’Brien found a tight relationship between race, Republicans, and voter ID. If a state elected a Republican governor, increased its share of Republican legislators, or became more competitive while under a Republican, it was more likely to pass voter ID and other restrictions on the franchise. Moreover, states with “unencumbered Republican majorities” and large black populations were especially likely to pass identification laws.
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Then there is what looks like it's underhanded... if the Secretary of State doesn’t find out what happened to these applications, he’ll have to answer to a judge. The Root: 40,000 Voter-Registration Applications Submitted by Blacks and Hispanics Disappeared in Georgia.
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It’s one thing to misplace your keys, or your wallet, or a receipt from Macy’s, or your favorite pen, but Georgia’s Secretary of State cannot account for approximately 40,000 voter-registration applications that if processed would enfranchise predominately black and Hispanic Georgians.
According to an Al Jazeera report, it’s a sentiment that the staffers over at Third Sector Development are expressing. The nonprofit organization was on a mission to register as many black and Hispanic people in the state of Georgia as possible so that voter turnout for the upcoming midterm elections in November would be high. And they were successful at it, until they received word that about half of the applications they submitted for processing have gone M.I.A.
“Over the last few months, the group submitted some 80,000 voter registration forms to the Georgia secretary of state's office — but as of last week, about half those new registrants, more than 40,000 Georgians, were still not listed on preliminary voter rolls. And there is no public record of those 40,000-plus applications, according to State Representative Stacey Adams, a Democrat,” Al Jazeera explained.
Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brain Kemp, explained that his office is not doing anything differently from how they usually process applications. But some people aren’t buying his story, seeing as though he’s a Republican and black and Hispanic people tend to vote for Democrats.
Georgia Republicans have been raising eyebrows for some time now with regard to early voting and voter-ID issues.
Attendees during CTE's Voter Registration at Justin's Restaurant on September 4, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia.
RICK DIAMOND/GETTY IMAGES
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A study by the Center for American Progress finds that teacher expectations affect student outcome, and less is expected of black, brown and low-income kids. The Root: Not-So-Great Expectations: Teachers Expect Less of Black and Brown Students.
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recent study by the Center for American Progress released this month highlighted what some might call the “soft bigotry of low expectations” if there was a way to take a jug of Downy fabric softener and make old-fashioned implicit bias gentler.
The study found that teachers can have a bit of a Pygmalion effect on students, as in, if they believe a student is gifted and has promise, they will try to deliver on it—unless that child is black, brown or low-income; then the outlook is not so bright.
For poor students and students of color, CAP’s researchers found that teachers thought a college degree was more out of reach for African-American students, to the tune of thinking black students were 47 percent less likely than white students to make it to a higher education. Their thoughts on Latino students? That they were 42 percent less likely to attend college. The view was even bleaker for low-income students: The view was that they were 53 percent less likely than students from more-affluent families to go to college.
Now, sure, there’s a chance that these expectations of teachers are in line with how quite a few people view the impoverished, as well as black and brown children. Because of historical inequities in our society, more than a century of institutionalized racism, and the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, of course children who are affluent and white would be viewed with more promise. Based on how the decks are stacked in our society, such children do have more promise by design.
But education is supposed to be the great equalizer, the real chance students across the board have to become successful adults. Next to voting rights and ending segregation, the biggest fights in the civil rights movement involved the power and promise of education.
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The panicked overreaction caused by media is damaging people's lives. The Grio: Navarro College rejects Nigerian students, cites Ebola ‘concerns’.
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exas college is receiving criticism for sending rejection letters to Nigerian applicants stating that, “Unfortunately, Navarro College is not accepting international students from countries with confirmed Ebola cases.”
The letters appear on official Navarro College letterhead and are signed by the two-year college’s director of international programs, Elizabeth A. Pillans.
There have been no confirmed new cases of Ebola in Nigeria since September 8, according to NBC News.
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