Today In Black History
Dr. Marie Maynard Daley, 1st African American woman to receive a PhD in Chemistry
Issue #523 Today In Black History, Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Today’s Black History WOW!
Dr. Marie Maynard Daly was born on April 16, 1921, and was a pioneering African-American biochemist who made significant contributions to the field of science. Dr. Daly was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University, and the first African-American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry.
Dr. Daley first graduated magna cum laude from Queens College with her bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1942. Upon graduation, she was named a Queens College Scholar, an honor that is awarded to the top 2.5% of the graduating class.
Dr. Daly and her colleagues did some of the earliest work relating diet to the health of the cardiac and circulatory systems. They investigated the impact of cholesterol, sugar, and other nutrients. She was the first to establish that hypertension was a precursor to atherosclerosis and the first to identify a relationship between cholesterol and clogged arteries, an important discovery in understanding how heart attacks occur.
Dr. Daly was not only a trailblazing scientist but also a dedicated educator who taught biochemistry at various universities throughout her career. She was passionate about inspiring young people, especially women and minorities, to pursue careers in STEM fields.
In 1975, Dr. Daly was one of 30 minority women scientists to attend a conference examining the challenges facing minority women in STEM fields. The conference was held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This resulted in the publication of the report, The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science (1976) which made recommendations for recruiting and retaining minority women scientists.
Dr. Daley died on October 28, 2003.
Today In Black History
- In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Scott v Sanford that African Americans could never be citizens of the United States. Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney (a brother-in-law of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words to the “Star-Spangled Banner”) wrote for the majority. This decision is seen by constitutional scholars as the worst SCOTUS decision in American history.
- In 1861, the Provisionary Confederate Congress established the Confederate Army.
- In 1869, Robert Tanner Jackson received a D.M.D. (Doctor of Dental Medicine) as a member of Harvard’s first graduating dental class.
- In 1957, the African nation of Ghana (formerly known as the “Gold Coast”) gained its independence from Great Britain, becoming the first African colony to gain independent nation status.
- In 2017, former president Donald Trump issued an executive order barring travelers from 6 majority-Muslim countries (but excluding Iran) for 90 days.
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