Commentary: African American Scientists and Inventors
By Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Alice Augusta Ball was born on July 24, 1892 in Seattle, Washington to James Presley and Laura Louise (Howard) Ball. Her family was considered middle class to upper-middle class as Ball's father was a newspaper editor, photographer, and a lawyer. Her grandfather, James Ball Sr., was also a famous photographer and one of the first African Americans in the United States to learn to daguerreotype. James Ball, Sr. moved to Hawaii with his family in 1903, but died one year later which caused the family to move back to Seattle in 1905.
After returning to Seattle, Ball attended Seattle High School and received top grades in the sciences. She graduated from Seattle High School in 1910 and entered the University of Washington to study chemistry. During her four years there, she earned bachelor degrees in both pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmacy. She also, with her pharmacy instructor, published a 10-page article in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society titled "Benzoylations in Ether Solution." Following her graduation, Ball was offered scholarships to attend the University of California Berkeley and the University of Hawaii. Ball decided to move back to Hawaii to pursue a master's degree in chemistry. In 1915, she became the first woman and first African American to graduate with a master's degree from the University of Hawaii.
In her postgraduate research career at the University of Hawaii, Ball investigated the chemical makeup and active principle of Piper methysticum (kava) for her master's thesis. While working on her thesis, Ball was asked by Dr. Harry T. Hollmann, an assistant surgeon at Kalihi Hospital in Hawaii, to help him develop a method to isolate the active chemical compounds in chaulmoogra oil. Chaulmoogra oil had previously been used in the treatment of Hansen's disease (leprosy) with mixed results. Most patients with Hansen's disease were hesitant to take the oil over the long term because it tasted bitter and tended to cause an upset stomach. Ball developed a process to isolate the ethyl esters of the fatty acids in the chaulmoogra oil so that they could be injected, but died before she could publish her results. Another chemist at the University of Hawaii, Arthur L. Dean, continued her work and began producing large quantities of the injectable chaulmoogra extract. In 1918, a Hawaii physician reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that a total of 78 patients were released from Kalihi Hospital by the board of health examiners after treatment with injections. The isolated ethyl ester remained the preferred treatment for Hansen's disease until sulfonamide drugs were developed in the 1940s......Read More
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Jersey educators will soon be taking a field trip to sites associated with the transatlantic slave trade in order to better understand the nuances of Black history that are being covered in their lesson plans, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
This new initiative — which was the brainchild of Jacqui Greadington, a retired East Orange, N.J., music teacher turned activist — is part of a program under Amistad Law, a mandate signed in 2002 by then-Governor Jim McGreevey requiring teachers to teach Black history.
“There are people who have no clue about the value of the African American story,” said Greadington, adding that she got the idea after a visit to Ghana, “changed my life forever.”
Unfortunately, almost twenty years after the fact the mandate was not being widely implemented until now.
Friday, Gov. Phil Murphy announced the program at a news conference during the annual New Jersey Education Association in Atlantic City which included a keynote address by scholar and activist Cornel West.
“We all know that the work of racial justice is hard, but it’s far too important to let that stop us,” New Jersey Education Association president Marie Blistan told hundreds of attendees.
“This work is personal for me,” said Dr. Lamont O. Repollet, New Jersey’s first Black education chief.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions has partnered with 101 Studios on Unstoppable, a film that tells the inspiring story of Anthony Robles. Despite being born with only one leg to a single-parent family on the wrong side of the tracks, Robles overcame every obstacle to become an undefeated collegiate wrestling star, three-time All-American, 2011 NCAA National Champion, two-time ESPY Award winner and a National Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee.
Pic will be produced by Seven Bucks’ Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia, with A Really Good Home Pictures’ Andy Fraser, Coonskin Cap Productions’ David Crockett, and Gary Lewis. John Hindman wrote the script, based on Unstoppable: From Underdog to Undefeated: How I Became a Champion, a 2012 memoir Robles wrote with Austin Murphy. Bob Yari is exec producing. First script draft was written by Eric Champnella.
Said Robles: “Words cannot express how honored I am to have my story made into a film. Because I was born missing my leg, my entire life I’ve had to deal with people having low expectations of me. When I got into wrestling, most people thought it was impossible for me to become even an average wrestler. I’m hopeful that people who see Unstoppable will walk away believing that you should never let your challenges define you. If you have a goal, go after it with everything you’ve got. Nothing is impossible.”
Said Johnson & Garcia: “Our entire Seven Bucks team is passionate about sharing stories that inspire and resonate on a global scale. We’ve had an eye on Anthony’s story for a long time and have been deeply moved by his perseverance that proves nothing is impossible. The powerful themes of redemption and tackling life’s obstacles are very familiar to us, we are excited to bring this triumphant underdog story to life.
“Anthony’s story is really special and reveals the passion, determination and fearlessness needed to overcome challenges,” Hiram Garcia added. “Investing in the right stories with universal appeal is a huge priority for us at Seven Bucks, but more importantly, we want to share stories like Anthony’s that motivate the world.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you worked on Hamilton, you’ll likely spend the next 25 years bringing up the smash musical in job interviews. It’s bound to happen when you contributed to something that won 11 Tonys, a Grammy and the Pulitzer Prize. But Khiyon Hursey could talk about his own work for at least an hour before mentioning Hamilton.
In 2014, a few months after graduating from Berklee College of Music in Boston with a degree in songwriting, Hursey connected with the Broadway show’s music director, and fellow Berklee alum, Alex Lacamoire. Impressed with Hursey’s composition skills, Lacamoire hired him to be his assistant on Hamilton. Hursey helped keep track of daily changes to the score as it went through constant revisions ahead of its off-Broadway debut. These days the 25-year-old doesn’t reminisce much about those long nights at the Public Theater. The songwriter-screenwriter doesn’t have time to, not with projects bouncing him between New York and Hollywood.
Last year, Universal Pictures greenlighted the movie musical Love in America — slated for release in 2021 — which Hursey co-wrote. This winter, Netflix will debut the romantic musical TV drama Soundtrack, which he also co-wrote. Now playing is a fresh dalliance with Broadway: Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz commissioned Hursey to write a song celebrating the musical’s 16th anniversary. Next up, with some luck, his own theatrical blockbuster: Eastbound, a musical about two Chinese brothers separated at birth that Hursey created with classmate Cheeyang Ng, is hunting for a regional theater where it can premiere after its August staged reading at the Festival of New Musicals.
“Also right now, my writing partner [on Love in America and Soundtrack] Harrison [Richlin] and I are about to shoot a pilot,” Hursey says. “Oh, also, I’m shooting a doc series with some friends. This is super new, it just kind of popped up in the past few weeks. It’s called Burnout.”
Burnout isn’t autobiographical — even if the title does seem to allude to Hursey’s intense workload. (The series will chronicle songwriting camps led by Tayla Parx, who co-wrote three Top 10 singles last year, including Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next.”)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Imagine, for a moment, you’re about eight years old, standing in a valley strewn with tiny hills. Your mother is nearby, trying to rope in your wandering little brother. Towering over you and milling about are dozens older white men, silver in the beard and haggard in the face, antique rifles slung over their shoulders. They shuffle in and out of pristine leather tents. A bugle cuts through the air. Cast-iron pans clang and men shout. A few moments pass before a great boom—which you later learn came from an actual real-life cannon—shatters the morning air and sends your hands flying to your ears.
You don’t necessarily notice who wins, nor do you listen to the adults talking about the stakes of the fake fight. You notice briefly that there are only white men, not a single Native person, like you, or black person in sight. But there’s little fear in your heart as the canons continue to ring, the guns pop, and the men fall to their death on the battlefield: It’s all theater, entertainment smoothly tucked into the lesson plan—like the time your middle school teachers packed you into a bus to go watch a poorly staged Shakespeare performance.
Such was my experience attending Civil War reenactments in the South. My mother and grandfather, both history buffs, took me out to see these scenes. To me, a young Sappony kid plenty familiar with white Southern culture, it never felt radical or dangerous or harmful. There were scores of other families, like us, watching from the hillside. They brought the same folding chairs and snacks they’d take to little league baseball games and sat quietly as the battle raged. It seemed like the natural adult extension of my neighbors, friends, and brother acting out whatever movie we’d seen most recently in the backyard.
So why is it that when people with a bit more melanin in their skin decide to stage their own reenactments, it’s perceived as a threat?
The New York Times published a feature on Saturday exploring this very question. Over the course of two days this past weekend, roughly 300 black people outside of New Orleans marched 26 miles, retracing the steps of those who took part in the 1811 slave revolt known as the German Coast Uprising. The reenactors all dressed in era-appropriate wear, some on horseback, others brandishing prop machetes and muskets.
The crowd that took in their performance was small—one observer disappointingly noted to the Times that the participants far out-numbered their audience. Another thought more public outreach was needed, perhaps “some Oprah money.” But the most revealing quote appeared three-quarters of the way through the article.
“I think it’s authentic-looking,” Mike Remondet, a retired maintenance supervisor, said after he pedaled over to the plantation house on his bicycle. “I just hope it doesn’t create any turmoil with the races. We usually get along pretty well.”
It’s one quote, from one person. And yet it it’s consistent with how many people react to black history in the United States. And it illustrates assumptions that pervade every aspect and version of how America chooses to remember its younger self.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the fight to lower the black maternal mortality rate continues, two new studies provide new evidence of stark contrasts in the way black and brown new mothers are treated postpartum, versus their white counterparts. Specifically, “Racial Disparities in Postpartum Pain Management” and “Racial and Ethnic Inequities in Postpartum Pain Evaluation and Management,” both published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology on Nov. 4 (h/t Reuters Health), found that post-delivery, white mothers are more likely to receive increased attention to, and assessments of, their pain and more access to pain medication than women of other races or ethnicities.
The former of the two studies surveyed 9,900 postpartum women, asking them to rate their pain on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst. Data collected found that Hispanic women were 61 percent more likely to report scores of 5 or higher, while black women were more than twice as likely to report pain on the higher end of the scale. And yet, these same women were given fewer milligrams of morphine than the white mothers surveyed—and were less likely to be prescribed opioids to help manage their pain after being discharged.
“Our study shows black and Hispanic women experience disparities in pain management in the postpartum setting,” study leader Dr. Nevert Badreldin of Chicago’s Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine said in a statement to Obstetrics & Gynecology. “These disparities cannot be explained by less perceived pain.”
Some may argue that less opioid prescriptions are a good thing, given the country’s current opioid epidemic. This concern is echoed by Dr. Brian Bateman of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston and Dr. Brendan Carvalho of Stanford University School of Medicine in California, the authors of an editorial accompanying the studies, “Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pain Management in the Midst of the Opioid Crisis.” In it, the two express “caution against responding to these differences by increasing opioid prescribing.”
However, it’s also worth taking into account the myriad pain issues women experience after giving birth, including uterine cramps, vaginal lacerations, musculoskeletal pain and pain from surgical incisions during delivery. How those injuries were assessed and treated by medical personnel was the focus of the second study, which again asked women to report their pain, with 10 as the highest metric.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Colorado Springs police officers who shot and killed a black 19-year-old will not face charges, a grand jury ruled Wednesday. The use of lethal force in the death of De’Von Bailey, which had sparked protests over what appeared to be another case of police brutality from white officers against a black teenager, was found to be justified.
On August 3, two officers shot and killed Bailey after they stopped him and another man on the street and questioned them about an alleged armed robbery. Body-cam footage recorded Bailey running away from officers during the stop, who then shot Bailey in the back three times. He later died in the hospital. Officers found a gun in his pants immediately after shooting him, though attorneys for Bailey’s family argued the footage showed he wasn’t a threat to the officers.
According to District Attorney Dan May, the grand jury found that Bailey’s fleeing justified the officers’ shooting, citing state laws that protect police who shoot fleeing suspects. However, these statues are controversial, because they conflict with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that determined such shootings to be unconstitutional.
In October, May announced that a grand jury would be investigating whether to charge the officers who shot Bailey. Prior to the grand jury, Bailey’s death was investigated by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, then the District Attorney’s Office for review. However, Bailey’s family has long called for an independent investigation of the teen’s death, arguing that the law enforcement entities were too close. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and other elected officials echoed those calls.
“Our nation is grappling with difficult challenges concerning race and how we treat one another,” Polis said at a news conference at the time. “It is more important now at this moment in time that our law enforcement agencies go above and beyond to maintain public trust and confidence.”
The grand jury’s decision was a “no true bill,” which dismisses the defendants when a grand jury finds not enough evidence to charge them, according to a statement from Colorado Springs Police Chief Vince Niski via CNN.
“This is the exact result that the process was designed to yield,” Mari Newman, an attorney representing the Bailey family, told Vox on Thursday. “When a tainted investigation is presented by a biased prosecutor, a grand jury can only come out one way. This is the very reason why we have called for an independent investigation and an independent prosecution from the beginning.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a plantation in Tiko, in south-west Cameroon, Adeline rubs the gap in her right hand where her index finger used to be. She arrived in the town in July 2018, having fled Ekona, 15 miles away. In that village soldiers terrified civilians by burning houses and shooting indiscriminately as part of a crackdown on militias that want the primarily English-speaking areas of Cameroon to secede from the predominantly Francophone country. Adeline hoped Tiko would prove a sanctuary.
It was anything but. A year ago Adeline was tending to an oil palm in the plantation when about 20 members of a separatist militia grabbed her, stuffed leaves in her mouth and tied her to the tree. They whipped her and cut off her finger. Her apparent crime: working for the Cameroon Development Corporation (cdc), a state-run company. “As I close my eyes I see the boys coming to get me,” says Adeline. “The trauma is still there.”
Cameroon was until recently a stable country in a fragile region. Today it is battling the jihadists of Boko Haram in the north, dealing with an influx of refugees from the Central African Republic in the east—and, most devastatingly, the “Anglophone crisis” in the west. Adeline’s is one of hundreds of thousands of lives ravaged by this conflict over the past three years. Paul Biya, the authoritarian who has ruled Cameroon for 37 years, had hoped that the crisis would prove short-lived. So did foreign powers, which have been largely quiet. Yet the conflict shows no sign of ending.
The origins of the turmoil began a century ago. After the first world war Britain and France took over different parts of the German colony of Cameroon. Upon independence in 1960 and 1961 the larger French territory joined the southern part of the British one to make modern Cameroon.
It quickly became one of the most centralised countries in Africa. Today just 1% of public spending is devolved to local governments, versus more than 50% in Nigeria. The country is officially bilingual, but the roughly 20% of people (4-5m in a country of 24m) who mainly speak English claim decades of marginalisation. Promises of devolution have been broken.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WELCOME TO THE FRIDAY PORCH
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF.