U.S. flag
        An official website of the United States government
          Here’s how you know
        Here’s how you know**Official websites use .gov**
              
              A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
        **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
              
              A **lock** (  A locked padlock
) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. https://www.nist.gov/history/african-americans-nist-history
  Search NIST
    Search
              Menu

      


Close
    Topics
        All Topics
                                                        Advanced communications
                                                        Artificial intelligence
                                                        Bioscience
                                                        Buildings and construction
                                                        Chemistry
                                                        Climate
                                                        Cybersecurity
                                                        Electronics
                                                        EnergyEnvironment
                                                        Fire
                                                        Forensic science
                                                        Health
                                                        Information technology
                                                        Infrastructure
                                                        Manufacturing
                                                        Materials
                                                        Mathematics and statisticsMetrology
                                                        Nanotechnology
                                                        Neutron research
                                                        Performance excellence
                                                        Physics
                                                        Public safety
                                                        Resilience
                                                        Standards
                                                        Transportation
            Publications
            Labs & Major Programs
        Laboratories
                                Communications Technology Laboratory
                                  Engineering Laboratory
                                  Information Technology Laboratory
                                  Material Measurement Laboratory
                                  Physical Measurement LaboratoryUser Facilities
                                NIST Center for Neutron Research
                                  CNST NanoFab
                                                        Research Test Beds
                                                        Research Projects
                                                        Tools & InstrumentsMajor Programs
                                Baldrige Performance Excellence Program
                                  CHIPS for America Initiative
                                  Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)
                                  Office of Advanced Manufacturing
                                  Special Programs Office
                                  Technology Partnerships Office
            Services & Resources
        Standards and Measurements
                                Calibration Services
                                  Laboratory Accreditation (NVLAP)
                                  Quality System
                                  Standard Reference Materials (SRMs)
                                  Standards.gov
                                  Time Services
                                  Office of Weights and MeasuresSoftware
                                                        Data
                                Chemistry WebBook
                                  National Vulnerability Database
                                  Physical Reference Data
                                  Standard Reference Data (SRD)
                                                        Storefront
                                                        License & PatentsComputer Security Resource Center (CSRC)
                                                        NIST Research Library
            News & Events
        News
                                                        Events
                                                        Blogs
                                                        Feature Stories
                                                        AwardsVideo Gallery
                                                        Image Gallery
                                                        Media Contacts
            About NIST
        About Us
                                Leadership
                                  Organization Structure
                                  Budget & Planning
                                                        Contact Us
                                                        Visit
                                                        Careers
                                Student programsWork with NIST
                                                        History
                                NIST Digital Archives
                                  NIST Museum
                                  NIST and the Nobel
                                                        Educational Resources
 
 NIST History
    
      
  Timeline
          NISTory Video Series
          Museum and History Program
          Past Directors
          NIST Time Capsule
          NIST at 100: Foundations for Progress
          Marie Curie and the NBS Radium Standards
          A Walk Through Time
          Radiation Physics Building: History of Research
          BlogsAfrican Americans in NIST History

Share
  Facebook
                      Linkedin
                      Twitter
                      Email

NIST (and the National Bureau of Standards, as we were previously known) has been fortunate to be home to many African American scientists, administrators and staff who have made lasting contributions to the mission of this institution — from Dolphus Milligan and Reatha Clark King to Willie May, who worked at NIST for more than 40 years, ultimately serving as the first African American NIST Director.

Below, we highlight a small number of those individuals who have contributed to our great past and helped set the stage for our incredible present and future. Also make sure you check out the first-person stories in the videos at the bottom of this page.

Willie May
			Dolphus Milligan
			Reatha Clark King
			Vernon Dantzler
			James A. Walker & Avery T. Horton
			William Bagley
			Victor McCrary

	Thomas Carter
			Nixon Halsey
			Evelyn Boyd Granville
			Thomas Pinkney Green
			Jacqueline Avin

Willia May

	Willie May

		Willie May came to NIST in 1971 as a chemist. He has a B.S. from Knoxville College and a Ph.D. from University of Maryland.

		For more than 20 years he led research activities in analytical chemistry. His work has been described in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and more than 250 invited lectures. In Alaska during the 1970s, Willie helped perform some of the first baseline measurements of hydrocarbons for monitoring pollution in offshore oil development.

		In 2015, May became NIST's first African American director. He now serves as Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Morgan State University. Read Willie's full bio.

Dolphus Milligan

	Dolphus Milligan

		Born in Brighton, Alabama, in 1928, Dolphus Milligan (left) received a bachelor’s in chemistry from Morehouse College in Atlanta, a master’s in organic chemistry and mathematics from Atlanta University, and a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

		After a short stint at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Milligan came to NIST in 1963. During his tenure, he performed pioneering studies of highly reactive, short-lived molecules, including so-called free radicals, which can damage proteins, cells and DNA. Milligan developed and essentially perfected a technique to imprison these molecules in frozen gas long enough to record their spectra, or chemical fingerprints.

		Expanding upon his technique, Milligan and his collaborator Marilyn Jacox (right) detected and characterized more than 50 of these elusive molecules before he died suddenly in 1973 at the age of 45.

Reatha Clark King

	Reatha Clark King

		Reatha Clark King was the National Bureau of Standards first African American female chemist. She has a B.S. from Clark College, an M.S. and Ph.D. from University of Chicago and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

		Working in the 1960s, NIST chemist Dr. Reatha C. King invented a device for cooling hot liquids, which NASA later adapted for rocket fuel systems linings. NASA also used methods she discovered for containing oxygen difluoride, a highly corrosive oxidizer.

		Since then, she has held directorships at many companies and served as president and executive director of the General Mills Foundation and vice president of General Mills Inc. from 1988-2002.

Vernon Dantzler

	Vernon Dantzler

		NIST mathematician and computer programmer Vernon Dantzler started off in a very different career... that of a professional baseball player; a star shortstop in the Texas circuit of the Negro Baseball League in the early 1940s. Dantzler also had a degree in mathematics from the Tuskegee Institute, and would later earn a graduate degree in the same field from American University.

		He joined the National Bureau of Standards in 1947 as a mathematician in the Mineral Products Division, conducting research on concrete.

		By the early 1960s he had become interested in computer programming. Dantzler wrote many of the subroutines for what became the NIST OMNITAB program. This computer program, first released in 1966, is considered one of the earliest spreadsheet programs.

		Vernon Dantzler retired from NIST in 1977, and passed away at the age of 89 in 2004.

		Learn more about Dantzler.

Thomas Carter

	Thomas Carter

		Thomas Carter of the NIST Materials Evaluation Laboratory performing a slit-tear test on a leather sample in 1965.

		Carter led NIST efforts to evaluate different test methods for the strength of leather. Industry relied upon the accuracy of these test methods to determine if raw leather had the durability to withstand stresses during the manufacture of footwear, clothing, and upholstered products.

Nixon Halsey

	Nixon Halsey

		Nixon Halsey of the NIST Engineering Mechanics Laboratory, in 1959, installing instrumentation to measure the time-dependent deformation of NASA rocket and aircraft structural parts under load and at high temperatures.

		Halsey also tested materials used in communications towers, satellite dishes, and hazardous liquid containers during his 26-year career at NIST.

Evelyn Boyd GranvilleCredit:
          
  National Academy of Sciences

	Evelyn Boyd Granville

		Evelyn Boyd Granville received her Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale in 1949, becoming only the second African-American woman to have earned an advanced math degree in the United States.

		Granville had worked at NIST as a summer student during college, and she re-joined NIST in the 1950s to work on mathematical problems related to missile electronics. She later worked in the private sector developing computations and computer programs for NASA space missions. Granville spent the remainder of her career as an academic in California and Texas before retiring in the 1990s.

Thomas Pinkney Green

	Thomas Pinkney Green

		The only African-American member of the NBS Chemistry section in 1916 was Thomas Pinkney Green.

		Green graduated from the influential Armstrong Manual Training School, whose one-time principal was Carter G. Woodson, the originator of African-American History Month.

James A. Walker and Avery T. Horton

		*Image 1 (left) - Research chemist James Walker*

		*Image 2 (right) - Avery Horton (1964) water-polishes a slice from a crystal of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate grown from solution in the NBS-ARPA crystal program. Strains and dislocations introduced into the crystal by abrasive polishing methods were avoided by this technique. After polishing, the crystal was examined by x-ray topography. These crystals were used to determine the inherent imperfections caused by growing variables.*

	James A. Walker and Avery T. Horton

		Walker and Horton were chemists at NIST in the 1960s. They also played a pivotal role in the history of Montgomery County, Maryland.

		In 1968, Walker and Horton were refused haircuts at a Gaithersburg, Maryland, barbershop so they filed a complaint with the Montgomery County Human Rights Commission.

		The Commission ruled that the barbershop was in violation of the county’s 1962 Public Accommodation Ordinance, which said businesses could not discriminate based on race. The barbershops challenged the validity of the ordinance in court, and the Montgomery Country chapter of the ACLU stepped in to provide legal support to Walker and Horton. This would be the first court test case for the Public Accommodation Ordinance. In 1970, the court upheld the Public Accommodation Ordinance. Walker and Avery’s actions helped to desegregate Gaithersburg barbershops and confirmed the legal standing of local governments to enforce anti-discrimination laws.

		Research  chemist James Walker developed test methods that could be used to compare accurately the oxidation stability of rerefined oil with that of a new oil. Walker, along with colleagues Wing Tsang and Douglass Cornell, received a patent for a reactive gas generator in 1980. He passed away in 2016, having received a Bronze Medal of Honor by the Department of Commerce during his career.

		Avery T. Horton, a physical chemist, studied crystal chemistry in the NBS Inorganic Materials Division. He received the first EEO award ever given by the Bureau in June 1970. Horton passed away in 2006.

Jacqueline Avin

	Jacqueline Avin

		City College of New York student Jacqueline Avin took part in NIST’s summer undergraduate student research program in 1975. She was assigned to NIST’s Institute for Materials Research where she studied polymers used in hip and knee replacements. This experience likely influenced her decision to attend medical school, and she went on to have a long career as a physician.

		(Are you a student yourself who is interested in science, engineering and mathematics? The NIST SURF program still exists! Find out more.)

William Bagley at an instrumentCredit:
          
  NIST

	William Bagley

		NIST's William Bagley checks instruments used to calibrate diagnostic X-ray units to prevent overexposure. (1977)

Victor McCrary

	Victor McCrary

		Victor McCrary was a group leader and division chief within NIST's Information Technology Laboratory between 1997 and 2003. He received a B.A. in chemistry from Catholic University of America, an M.S. in Executive Engineering Management from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Howard University.

		He is the co-recipient of a Department of Commerce Gold Medal for the first open standards for electronic books. His division led pioneering research and standards in emerging digital media, including electronic book reading systems, and biometrics. His division won a 2001 R&D 100 award for developing a Braille reader for e-books.

Do you know an individual from our history who deserves to be recognized here? robin.materese [at] nist.gov(subject: African%20Americans%20at%20NIST)(Please let us know.)

Videos

NIST Colloquium Series: African American Contributions to NIST, by Willie E. May
NIST Colloquium Series: African American Contributions to NIST, by Willie E. May

	Remembering NBS, My Gateway to a Future of Service and Opportunity
Remembering NBS, My Gateway to a Future of Service and Opportunity

NIST Colloquium Series: William A. Lester, Jr.
NIST Colloquium Series: William A. Lester, Jr.

	NIST Colloquium Series: A 55-year Journey in Science From NBS to NIST and beyond
NIST Colloquium Series: A 55-year Journey in Science From NBS to NIST and beyond

How NIST Scientists Helped Desegregate Barbershops
How NIST Scientists Helped Desegregate Barbershops

    
    Created February 23, 2019, Updated February 27, 2019
 HEADQUARTERS
            100 Bureau Drive
              Gaithersburg, MD 20899301-975-2000
            Webmaster | Contact Us | Our Other Offices
        Twitter
            
Facebook
            
LinkedIn
            
Instagram
            
YouTube
            
Giphy
            
RSS Feed
            
Mailing List
                              How are we doing? Feedback

  
  Site Privacy
                      Accessibility
                      Privacy Program
                      Copyrights
                      Vulnerability Disclosure
                      No Fear Act Policy
                      FOIA
                      Environmental Policy
                      Scientific Integrity
                      Information Quality Standards
                      Commerce.gov
                      Science.gov
                      USA.gov
                      Vote.gov