The 2016 book, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, and the subsequent film by the same name released later that year, introduced the world to three remarkable women, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, all mathematicians for NASA who in the early 1960s helped put the first U.S. astronauts in space. There are hundreds of other little known pioneers in mathematics and other STEM fields who are now profiled on BlackPast. Our goal is the end their obscurity. Many of those little-known women and men are listed below in their respective fields. Learn about their lives and accomplishments in their profiles. There are far more individuals who only await volunteers to write their profiles. Please help bring their stories to the general public by writing about them for BlackPast. If you are interested please contact us at volunteer@blackpast.org.
Science
Agronomy:
George Washington Carver, 1864?-1943
Anatomy:
Astronomy:
Astrophysics:
Arthur Bertram Cuthbert Walker, Jr., 1936-2001
Biology:
Roger Arliner Young, 1889-1964
William Montague Cobb, 1904-1990
Samuel Milton Nabrit. 1905-2003
Botany:
Jesse Jarue Mark, Jr., 1905-1971
Chemistry:
William Jacob Knox, Jr., 1904-1995
Angie Lena Turner King, 1905-2004
Thomas Nelson Baker, Jr., 1906-1977
Lawrence Howland Knox. 1906-1966
Nathaniel Olgesby Calloway, 1907-1979
Harold Bethuel Evans, 1907-1995
George Sherman Carter, 1911-1998
Moddie Daniel Taylor,1912-1976
James Ellis Lu Valle, 1912-1993
Edwin Roberts Russell, 1913-1996
Lloyd Albert Quarterman, 1918-1982
Samuel Proctor Massie, 1919-2005
Ralph Alexander Gardner, 1922-
Bertram Oliver Fraser-Reid, 1934-
Environmental Studies:
Geology:
Marguerite Thomas Williams, 1895-1991
Geophysics:
Randolph Wilson Bromery, 1926-2013
Meteorology:
Charles Edward Anderson, 1919-1994
Warren Morton Washington, 1936-
Medical Research:
George Franklin Grant, 1847-1910
Solomon Carter Fuller, 1872-1953
William Harry Barnes, 1887-1945
Louis Tompkins Wright, 1891-1952
Dorothy Celeste Boulding Ferebee, 1898-1980
William Montague Cobb, 1904-1990
Frederick D. Stubbs, 1906-1947
Helen Octavia Dickens, 1909-2001
LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., 1930-2019
Microbiology:
Jessie Isabelle Price, 1930-2015
Nutrition Science:
Oceanography:
Edward Lancelot Miles, 1936-2016
Samuel George Harker Philander, 1942-
Physics:
Edward Alexander Bouchet, 1852-1918
Jasper Brown Jeffries, 1912-1994
Julius Henry Taylor, 1914-2011
Walter Samuel McAfee, 1914-1995
Joseph Salvadore Francisco, Jr., 1955-
Plant Physiology:
Marion Antoinette Richards Myles (1917-1969)
Zoology:
Charles Henry Turner, 1867-1923
Technology
Computer Science:
Graphic Design:
George Elliot Olden, 1920-1975
Inventions/Innovations:
Alexander P. Ashbourne, 1820-1915
George Franklin Grant, 1847-1910
Jan Ernst Matzeliger, 1852-1887
Sarah Elisabeth Goode, c.1855?-1905
Miriam Elizabeth Benjamin, 1861-1947
Garrett A. Morgan, Sr., 1877?-1963
William Chester Ruth, 1882-1971
Henry Binga Dismond, 1891-1956
Frederick McKinley Jones, 1893-1961
Marjorie Stewart Joyner, 1896-1994
David Nelson Crosthwait Jr., 1898-1976
Bessie Blount Griffin, 1914-2009
Marie Van Brittan Brown, 1922–1999
James Edward Maceo West, 1931-
Henry Thomas Sampson, Jr., 1934-
Video Game Design:
Gerald “Jerry” Anderson Lawson, 1940-2011
Engineering
General:
National Society of Black Engineers, 1975-
Aerospace:
Gordon Alexander McHenry, 1921-2001
Architectural:
Archie Alphonso Alexander, 1888-1958
Chemical:
Virgil Garnett Trice, Jr., 1926-1997
Civil:
Frederick McDonald Massiah, 1886–1975
Computer Graphics Engineering:
Electronic Engineering:
Industrial:
Landscape Engineer:
Garnet Douglass Baltimore, 1859-1946
Mechanical:
Naval Engineering:
Ray Jean Jordan Montague, 1935-
Nuclear:
Mathematics
General:
Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes, 1890-1980
Dorothy Johnson Vaughan, 1910–2008
Sylvanus Alexander Tyler, 1914-1986
Marjorie Lee Browne, 1914–1979
Katherine Goble Johnson, 1918-
Mary Winston Jackson, 1921–2005
Albert Turner Bharucha-Reid, 1927-1985
Charles Bernard Bell, Jr., 1928-2010
Vivienne Malone-Mayes, 1932-1995
Etta Zuber Falconer, 1933–2002
Statistics: