African-American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project
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African-American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project held a small number of positions among the several hundred scientists and technicians involved. Nonetheless, African-American men and women made important contributions to the Manhattan Project during World War II.[1][2] At the time, their work was shrouded in secrecy, intentionally compartmentalized and decontextualized so that almost no one knew the purpose or intended use of what they were doing.[3]
As government documents have been declassified and historians have examined archives and collected oral histories, the work of people like physical chemist William Jacob Knox Jr., chemist Lloyd Quarterman, physicist Carolyn Parker, physicist and mass spectrometrist Robert Johnson Omohundro, and physicist and mathematician Jesse Ernest Wilkins Jr. is being recognized.[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).
The small number of African Americans employed as scientists and technicians is an indication of the structural discrimination that affected and continues to affect African Americans.[8][9][10] The realities faced by African American scientists and technicians varied with location. No African Americans lived at Los Alamos, New Mexico, a primary site of the Manhattan Project, prior to 1947. At southern research facilities like Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, segregation and discriminatory policies were strictly enforced. For example, white couples were allowed to live together, while black couples were not. Conditions at the Hanford Engineer Works in Hanford, Washington were slightly better. Conditions improved at Columbia University in New York City and at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, but African-American scientists still faced both structural barriers and overt incidents of racism.
Over time, researchers have begun to examine the role of African Americans in the Manhattan Project, the ways in which technology and ethnic identity intersect, and the variety of ways in which African Americans viewed their involvement.[11]