Ernest Everett Just

Ernest Everett Just (August 14 1883 – October 27 1941) was a pioneering black U.S. biologist. Just spent his adult life collecting, classifying, and caring for his marine specimens. He believed that scientists should study whole cells under normal conditions, rather than simply breaking them apart in a laboratory setting. Just's primary legacy is his recognition of the fundamental role of the cell surface in the development of organisms.

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Early life

Just was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1883 to parents Charles Frazier Just Jr. and Mary Matthews Just. His father and grandfather Charles Sr. were dock builders. When he was four years old, both died. Just’s mother became the sole supporter of him, his younger brother and his younger sister. Mary Matthews Just taught at an African-American school in Charleston to support her family. During the summer, she did back-breaking work in the phosphate mines on James Island. Noticing that there was much vacant land on the island, Mary persuaded several black families to move there to farm. The town they founded was eventually named Maryville in her honor.

Hoping Just would become a teacher, his mother sent him to an all-black boarding school in Orangeburg, South Carolina at the age of thirteen. Because the schools for blacks in the south were inferior, Just and his mother thought it better for him to go north. At age sixteen, Just enrolled at a Meriden, New Hampshire college-preparatory high school, Kimball Union Academy. Despite being the only black student at Kimball, Just completed the four-year program in only three years and graduated in 1903 with the highest grades in his class. His mother had died during his second year at Kimball. He was only seventeen.

After graduating Kimball Union Academy, Just went on to attend Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1907, the only student to graduate magna cum laude.^{[citation needed]} Ernest won special honors in botany, history, and sociology and was designated as a Rufus Choate scholar for two years.

Founding of Omega Psi Phi

On November 17, 1911, Just assisted three Howard students (Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper, and Frank Coleman), in establishing the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. The name Omega Psi Phi was derived from a Greek phrase meaning "friendship is essential to the soul", and became the fraternity's motto. Manhood, scholarship, perseverance, and uplift were adopted as Omega's cardinal principles.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Upon graduation from Dartmouth, Just faced the same problems as all black college graduates of his time: no matter how brilliant they were or how high were their grades, it was almost impossible for blacks to become faculty members of white colleges or universities. Just then took what seemed to be the best choices available to him and was appointed to a teaching position at historically-black Howard University in Washington, D.C.. In 1910, he was put in charge of the newly-formed biology department by Wilbur P. Thirkield. In 1912, he became head of the Department of Zoology, a position he held until his death in 1941. Just was soon introduced to Dr. Frank R. Lillie, head of the biology department at the University of Chicago. Lillie, who was also chief of the Marine Biology Lab at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, invited Just to spend the summer of 1909 as his research assistant at Woods Hole. For the next twenty years, Just spent every summer but one at Woods Hole. On 12 June, 1912 Ernest married Ethel Highwarden, who taught German at Howard University. They had three children: Margaret, Highwarden, and Maribel.

In 1915, Just took a leave of absence from Howard to enroll in an advanced academic program at the University of Chicago. That same year, Just, who was gaining a national reputation as an outstanding young scientist, was the first recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal on 12 February, 1915. In June 1916, Just received his Ph.D. in experimental embryology, with a thesis on the mechanics of fertilization, from the University of Chicago, becoming one of the handful blacks who had gained this degree from a major university.

During the next several years, Just became an internationally respected biologist. At Woods Hole, he conducted thousands of experiments studying the fertilization of the marine mammal cell. His work on small water creatures was highly respected by biologists in Europe. In 1922, Just successfully refuted Jacque Loeb’s theory of artificial parthenogenesis. His first book, Basic Methods for Experiments on Eggs of Marine Mammals, was based on his Woods Hole research. Just eventually published more than 50 scientific papers over 20 years based on his research at Woods Hole.

Just, however, became increasingly frustrated because he could not attain an appointment to a major American university. He wanted a position that would provide a steady income and allow him to spend more time with his beloved research. Believing that racial prejudice in his own country was severely restricting him, Just settled for the first time in Europe in January 1929. The same year, he conducted experiments at the zoological station in Naples, Italy. Then, in 1930, he became the first American to be invited to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, Germany, where several Nobel Prize winners conducted research.

Although Just remained employed by Howard University, he spent most of his time in Germany. In 1931, he met a German woman, Hedwig Schnetzler, whom he later married. Beginning in 1933, Just ceased his work when the Nazis begun to take the control of Germany. In 1934, Just conducted most of his work in Italy and at the Sorbonne in Paris. He moved to France permanently in 1938 in poor health and exhausted by constant disagreements with the administration at Howard.

In 1939, Just published his masterwork, The Biology of the Cell Surface, an important work that summarized his life’s work on small marine mammals.

Death

In 1940 Germany invaded France and Just was imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp briefly.^[1] He was rescued by the U.S. State Department and returned to his home country in September 1940. However, Just had been very ill for months prior to his arrest; his condition deteriorated in prison and on the trip home. He was never again well enough to continue to teach at Howard University. Just died of pancreatic cancer on October 27, 1941.

References

• Brown, Mitchell, “Faces of Science: African-American in the Sciences,” 1996.
• Kessler, James; Kidd, J.S.; Kidd, Renee; and Morin, Katherine A.; Distinguished African-American Scientists of the 20th Century. Oryx Press: Phoenix, AZ, 1996.
• McKissack, Patrick and Frederick. African-American Scientists. The Millbrook Press: Brookfield, Connecticut, 1994.
• Manning, Kenneth R. Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just. Oxford University Press: New York, New York, 1983.
• Yount, Lisa. Black Scientists. Facts on File: New York, 1991.