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Tag: black history

  • Percy Julian Honored With Google Doodle On His 115th Birthday

    Google is celebrating the life of Percy Lavon Julian with a doodle on its homepage today, his 115th birthday. He died from liver cancer in 1975 at the age of 76.

    Julian is known as a brilliant chemist, who emerged from the Jim Crow South to pioneer chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs and human hormones like progesterone and testosterone from plants. He is credited as the first to synthesize the natural product of physostigmine. His work is said to have “laid the foundation” for the steroid drug industry’s production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills.”

    In 1973, Julian became the second African-American to be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. In 1990, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Three years later he was honored with a USPS stamp.

    Here’s a Nova segment about him:

    Read the Wikipedia article about him.

    One of Julian’s studies related to physostigmine is available here.

    Images via Google, YouTube

  • Phylicia Rashad Moves into the Director Role

    While famous for her notable TV role as the “Cosby Show” matriarch, Phylicia Rashad, has embarked onto another facet of performing arts. According to the Star Tribune, Rashad has taken on the role of director in the national staged reading for the New York-based play, “Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963.”

    Today commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that took place in Birmingham, AL on September 15, 1963. The bombing, which claimed the lives of four African-American little girls, denoted a strong progression in the turn of events that pushed the envelop for the 1960s Civil Rights movement. The historic bombing served as a strong influential factor in the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

    The reading for “Four Little Girls,” written by playwright Christina Ham, took place at the Kennedy Center Family Theater in Washington DC. The talented stage readers consisted of high school students from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and college students from Howard University.

    As a Howard University alumni, Rashad accepted the directorial role as an esteemed honor, stating that while the leadership is challenging, the gratuitous effort are quite rewarding. Rashad said her desire for the reading was to elaborate on the “sanctity of joy, human existence, and the value of life.” She went on to explain that as director her main focal point is maintaining the creative energy, keeping it in sync with the Ham’s’ vision, “while leaving room for people to add to the vision.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons