Today In Black History: Carolyn Parker
Research Physicist with a department of the Manhattan Project
Issue #822 Today In Black History, Wednesday, March 12, 2025
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Carolyn Parker was born in Gainesville, Florida, on November 18, 1917. Her father, Dr. Julius A. Parker, graduated from Meharry Medical College. Her mother's sister, Joan Murrell Owens, was a marine biologist and among the first African-American women to receive a PhD in geology.
Parker was a teacher and research physicist who contributed to the Dayton Project from 1943 to 1947, an initiative within the Manhattan Project focused on polonium development. Parker was among the few African American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project.
After obtaining her undergraduate degree at Fisk University, Parker began her academic career teaching at public schools in Florida. She then earned two master’s degrees: one in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1941 and one in physics from MIT in 1951.
The Manhattan Project, a monumental scientific and military endeavor during World War II, aimed to develop the atomic bomb. Though much of her work remains shrouded in secrecy due to the project’s classified nature, Parker contributed to critical research on uranium isotopes, a key component in the development of nuclear weapons.
She worked as a research physicist on the Dayton Project at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, from 1943 to 1947.
The Dayton Project was part of the Manhattan Project to develop atomic weapons in World War II, and continuing into the Cold War. Parker's team was tasked with separating the radioactive element polonium to be used as the initiator for the atomic bombs.
Parker was a member of the Institute of Radio Engineers, the American Physical Society, Sigma Upsilon Pi, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
She never married and had no children.
Carolyn Parker died in Gainesville, Florida, on March 17, 1966, at the age of 48 from leukemia, believed to be a result of her extensive work with polonium.
Today In Black History
In 1793, Black fur trader Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable founded the City of Chicago settlement.
In 1791, Black surveyor Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L’Enfant were commissioned to lay out the streets of the District of Columbia.
In 1868, Great Britain annexed Basutoland in Africa, which was later renamed the Kingdom of Lesotho.
In 1945, New York became the first state to establish a Fair Employment Practices Commission, prohibiting discrimination based on race and creed.
In 1964, Malcolm X resigned from the Nation of Islam.
In 1968, the African nation of Mauritius became an independent country.
In 1975, Dr. Gloria D. Scott became the first Black president of the Girl Scouts.
In 1982, Charles Fuller won the Pulitzer Prize for “A Soldier’s Play.”
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