EDWARD ALEXANDER BOUCHET (1852-1918) entered Yale College in 1870 and graduated summa cum laude and sixth in his class in 1874. He was nominated for Phi Beta Kappa that year, making him the first African American nominated for the society, but because Yale’s chapter of PBK was largely inactive for a period of 10+ years, ...

DAVID HAROLD BLACKWELL (1919– ) has made important contributions to the fields of applied mathematics and statistics. His ability to express a concept has added much to the introduction of modern statistical methods in mathematics. Dr. Blackwell often uses powerful and highly innovative mathematical techniques to arrive at the solutions to his research problems. Now ...

KEITH L. BLACK (1957– ) is a renowned neurosurgeon and scientist who is the Director of the Neurosurgical Institute and holds the Ruth and Lawrence Harvey Chair in Neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Black is also Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, Irvine. At age 17 Dr. Black ...

MARY McLEOD BETHUNE (1875–1955) was a sociologist and a special adviser on minority affairs to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the years of the Great Depression, Dr. Bethune was director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. She served on numerous presidential commissions under Presidents Coolidge, Hoover, and Roosevelt. In 1904 she founded the ...

BENJAMIN BANNEKER (1731–1806) worked with Pierre L’Enfant, Andrew Ellicott, and others to plan Washington, D.C., the new capital of the United States. After Mr. L’Enfant was dismissed from the project and took his detailed maps with him, Mr. Banneker was able to reproduce the maps from memory and complete the survey. Before being appointed by ...

HAROLD AMOS (1919– ) is the Maude and Lilian Presley Professor of microbiology and molecular genetics (emeritus) at the Harvard Medical School, where he has served on the faculty since 1954. His primary research area, hexose metabolism in mammalian cells, is essential to the understanding and treatment of diseases such as diabetes and some forms ...

ARCHIE A. ALEXANDER (1888–1958), an engineer, headed his own civil engineering firm for more than forty years. Among the numerous projects his firm completed are Washington, D.C.’s Tidal Basin Bridge and the K Street Freeway. Although it was, at that time, not illegal to deny work on the basis of race, Alexander competed successfully with ...