Samuel P. Massie Jr

Born on 3 July 1919 in Little Rock, Arkansas, Samuel Proctor Massie Jr was an award-winning chemist who became the first African American professor at the US Naval Academy. He attended Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical, and Normal College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff) because the University of Arkansas did not accept black students. Massie received a degree in chemistry from Arkansas AM&N and then a master’s from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1941 he began doctoral studies at Iowa State University, though he couldn’t live in the same dormitories or use the same labs as the white students. Two years later Massie joined his doctoral supervisor, Henry Gilman, in developing liquid uranium compounds for atomic weapons as part of the Manhattan Project. After the war Massie received his PhD in organic chemistry and procured teaching jobs at Fisk and then Langston University in Oklahoma. Along with research in drug development, Massie worked on modernizing the nation’s science labs as a program director at NSF. In 1963 he became president of North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University). Three years later President Lyndon Johnson made Massie the first ever African American professor at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. There he worked on developing drugs for ailments including malaria, meningitis, and cancer. A year after retiring from the Naval Academy in 1993, the Department of Energy created the Dr. Samuel P. Massie Chairs of Excellence Professorships in Science and Engineering in his honor. Massie died in 2005 at age 85. (Photo credit: US Naval Academy)

Date in History: 3 July 1919