There have been a substantial amount of scientists that have helped build weapons and contributed scientific knowledge for the military. History has shown that the military requires scientific knowledge for America to become a superpower. An example of this is the Manhattan Project. It was a research development led by the U.S., U.K., and Canada that took place during World War II. It was within this project that the very first nuclear weapons were produced. Some of the most known scientists that contributed to this project were Robert J. Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and many more.
It started with a letter addressed to President Roosevelt. In 1939, a group of well known physicists including Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard, warned the president of Germany's efforts to create new bombs and they urged the United States government to conduct research that would produce their weapon first. The Roosevelt Administration understood the warning and in a October 1941, a research program was established to build an atomic bomb. This would soon be referred to as the Manhattan Project in 1942.
Initially, the research for the project was based at a few universities such as Columbia University and the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley. There were groundbreaking development in 1942 when Enrico Fermi and a group of physicists produced the first nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago. Due to the recent success in the project, funds were distributed more freely for the project and nuclear energy facilities were built in Tennessee, Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Washington.
However, many people fail to realize that there were also black scientists that played a key role in the success of the Manhattan Project. There were many African American scientists that served very important roles in the project, but they weren’t recognized as much as white scientists due to discrimination and segregation in the early 1900s. Without their accomplishments and findings as well as their collaborations with other scientists, we wouldn’t have the nuclear weapons and technology that we have today.
Whether or not one supports or opposes America’s military plight, it is essential to acknowledge all individuals who were involved in this project. As a result, this paper will inform the audience about the significant contributions of three African American scientists who participated in the Manhattan Project which resulted in groundbreaking developments in the history of our military.
Before I discuss these key individuals, I think it’s important to understand the social and political environment during the Manhattan Project. African Americans and whites worked together because they both shared a common goal: to contribute to the war effort. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a protective order in 1941 that established greater employment opportunities for African Americans. It stated, “There shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries of Government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.” To reinforce this executive order, a prohibition of discrimination clause was written in all defense contracts.
The fact that African American scientists and technicians were involved in the Manhattan Project is remarkable considering the harsh limitations placed on their education in the South before World War II. According to an article entitled, ‘Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project’, “In 1933, only 54% of Southern white students were attending high school and only 18% of Southern blacks were there at a time when the overwhelming majority of African Americans lived in the states of the former Confederacy.” Additionally, black scientists and technicians had outdated laboratory equipment and short teaching staff, even those in segregated black high schools received little to no exposure to any type of science training in the South. Students at HBCU’s at the time usually faced similar challenges.
African American scientists and workers were trying to escape Jim Crow laws and a recent drought had ruined farming communities after the Great Depression. While all this was happening, thousands of scientists and workers decided to make their contributions to the Manhattan Project. Some worked as scientists and lab assistants in Chicago and New York, but most of them were construction workers, laborers and janitors at Oak Ridge and Hanford.
The promise of higher paying jobs and a better future attracted many African Americans to the Manhattan Project. However, the segregation and discrimination practices still made its way into the organization. There were multiple sites established for the Manhattan Project and they reflected the beliefs of the communities that they were stationed in. The overall experience for African Americans depended solely on the sites they were located at.
At Oak Ridge, it was very similar to tensions in the South meaning that segregation was very prominent. Because African Americans had the lowest paying jobs, they lived in cramped huts with a few whites. While African American women and men lived in the same area, a five foot barbed wire fence separated them. Women lived in an area called the “Pen” where guards were stationed outside for protection and to also enforce the 10 pm curfew. Married couples weren’t allowed to live together or interact with eachother. There were special accommodations to enforce this such as, separate bathrooms, water fountains, and recreational rooms.
One key individual in the Manhattan Project was Dr. William Jacob Knox Jr., who graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Chemistry in 1925. Dr. Knox was the only African American supervisor in the Manhattan Project. William obtained his masters degree and PhD from MIT in 1929 and from 1935-1942 he became a chemistry professor at Notth Carolina A&T College. A year later, he and a group of scientists at Columbia University to come up with a way to separate two uranium isotopes using gaseous diffusion. This is a tedious process that incorporated uranium hexaflouride, which is an extremely corrosive material. He wasn’t aware at the time, but his findings were essential to the creation of the atomic bomb.
A second key individual in the Manhattan Project was George Warren Reed. He was a second generation African American college student due to his family’s passion and dedication to education. One of Reed’s uncles attended the Hampton Institute and another was a medical school graduate at Howard Medical School.
When Reed attended school, his mother wanted him to focus solely on his schoolwork while she supported the family. A few years later. Reed finished his masters degree at Howard University in 1944. George went on to have children and before he died, his son interviewed him about his work during the Manhattan Project.
In the interview he stated that he was on call for the draft and he wanted to make contributions to the war effort while using his knowledge of chemistry. He started looking for opportunities to work for the Met Lab in Chicago and a few months later he began working there. Reed informed his son, “My life story would be very different had not World War II intervened with the need to more fully utilize all the nations manpower and with the continued opening up of opportunities to all.”
He didn’t realize it at the time, but he and his other African American colleagues were developing the atomic bomb. He stated that he was trained as an organic chemist and in the lab they were purifying uranium. Unfortunately, due to discrimination and segregation they weren’t allowed to converse with the white scientists in the lab next to them so they never knew their main objective.
A handful of Reed’s white colleagues at Chicago and Columbia were drafted into the military and they were able to return to work on the Manhattan Project as private’s and generals. Later in life they would receive benefits like the G.I. Bill for their contributions. Once Reed was aware of this, he tried to follow suit by addressing the draft board in Washington. After waiting months for a response from the board, they stated, “we’re not allowed to touch you”. Unsure of what to make of their decision, Reed decided to transfer to Oak Ridge to continue his studies.
Once he arrived, he immediately realized that discrimination was even more prominent at Oak Ridge. The laboratory managers told the black employees that they had to transfer to other locations because the only spots available there were for white scientists. Reed took a stand and went to the director in New York and informed him of the issues at Oak Ridge. He asked, “Why can’t I go when everyone else is given the opportunity?” The man told Reed, “It just can’t work that way” and that “Negro scientists aren’t welcome down there.”
Reed continued to work in New York until the war ended in 1945. Afterwards, he traveled to Chicago to work at the Met Lab and after he finished his work there he went on to work at the Argonne National Laboratory where he obtained his PhD.
A third key individual in the Manhattan Project was J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. At the age of 13, Wilkins became the youngest person admitted to the University of Chicago where he received his bachelors degree in math at 16. He earned his masters degree and finished his doctorate by 19 and went on to teach math at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Within that same year, the government picked him to join the Manhattan Project. During the project, he conducted research on neutron energy and reactor physics with Enrico Fermi and Eugene Wigner. Within a year he discovered three scientific phenomena that are named by him today: the Wilkins Effect, the Wilkins Spectra, and the Wigner Wilkins Spectra. All of these phenomena are associated with the motion of subatomic particles which are a cluster of particles. At just 21 years old when he began contributing to the Manhattan Project, he was one of the most intelligent young minds America had in their arsenal to design an atomic bomb.
Four years later, the project produced the world's first atomic bombs. These bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. These atomic bombs killed over 110,000 people and it ultimately forced the Japanese government to surrender. This display of deadly power, was unprecedented in the history of humankind, this was the catalyst for the nuclear age.
After World War II ended, the United States established the Atomic Energy Commission to supervise the research efforts to apply the technology obtained from nuclear energy to other scientific fields. Nuclear technology was perfected by the engineers and scientists in the Manhattan Project and has recently been used for nuclear reactors, power generators and medical imaging systems like MRI’s and X-Rays.
In conclusion, I’ve presented three African American scientists who made groundbreaking contributions to the Manhattan Project in 1939. Without their dedication and involvement in the project, we wouldn’t have the nuclear intelligence or bombs that we are equipped with today. Even through the Jim Crowe laws which included segregation, discrimination, and racism, these black scientists persevered and helped other scientists and our military, along with Russia, win World War II. Not only did they help develop nuclear and atomic weapons for the military, but they also provided us with a substantial amount of knowledge about nuclear energy that has been applied to other scientific fields today.