In Dr. Ernest Everett Just's obituary in Science (Vol. 95, Jan. 2, 1942) a colleague, Dr. Frank R. Lillie, wrote of him as "undoubtedly the best investigator in the field of biology that his people has produced in America."

But equally lauded by other scientists, Dr. Just and his achievements in embryology have unfortunately not received the recognition that has been given to other black scientists such as George Washington Carver, the inventor of peanut butter, and Benjamin Benneker, who is said to have invented the first clock made in America.

He was born in Charleston, South Carolina on August 14, 1883. His mother, a school teacher, sent him to the best elementary school available, Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire. Later he entered Dartmouth where he earned his baccalaureate degree.

He specialized in zoology and devoted a great amount of time to research in his field. He was elected Phi Beta Kappa and received honors in zoology and history, not to mention the only "magna cum laude" in his class.

In 1909 he began his graduate training at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole (This was later to be the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute). Working with marine invertebrates as a research assistant he focused on the breeding habits of Neresis and the sea urchin Arbacia. This led him into marine eggs, which would remain the focus of his career as a scientist.

Until the time he received his Ph.D. at Chicago University in 1916, he worked at Woods Hole and completed six papers. Hist first paper in 1912 showed that the plane of symmetry of development, or the left and the right halves of the body, in the round worm Neresis is determined by the point of entry of the sperm on the egg.

This discovery has been shown to be the case in many animals and something similar occurs in humans as well. In the 20 years following this paper, Dr. Just published 50 papers about fertilization and parthenogenesis.

He remained at Woods Hole until 1930 when he withdrew to work in European laboratories because of something that limited him his entire career. Dr. Just was extremely sensitive on the subject of race and sought to work in the freer racial atmosphere of the European research laboratories.

It is said that once after being the victim of a racial insult, he disappeared into his laboratory for two days. Research was his security and he immersed himself in it totally.

Racism remained the central tragedy of his life. Although he could work at the Kaiser Institut fur Biologie and the Sorbonne marine research facility, he was never offered an appointment at any large institution in the United States.

It must be remembered that, outside of Howard University, Dr. Just could only teach at a secondary high school; the large research oriented universities shied away.

In conclusion it is simply tragic that this great scientist was not allowed to reach his full potential. But the story doesn't end with Dr. Just.

As late as 1950 according to Dr. Charles in an article in Journal of Negro History (XXXV, Jan. 1950), there were only 76 black doctorates in the natural sciences. The number is better today, but 30 years later the absence of blacks as well as other minorities in the sciences is conspicuous and ominous.

The tragedy still exists that a vast potential is remaining untouched by the lack of higher education among blacks.

Dr. Just alienated his students as well as himself because of his sensitivity to race. Unfortunately he never pushed his black students into science because as was commented by a former student, "he wanted no bitterness for others of his race and so did not encourage them to greater attainment."

In other words, the system was stacked against them and minorities couldn't go far. A similar situation still exists, because blacks are being stopped at all levels from participating in higher education.

If a black student is able to succeed in the despairing atmosphere of urban high schools, he or she has to face the unfriendly and often hostile environments on the campus. Affirmative Action doesn't do enough to change this situation; it will take the work of everyone working to end racism in their own lives every day.

Dr. Lillie understood Ernest Just's difficulties with racism and said in his epitaph, "that a man of his ability, scientific devotion, and of such strong loyalty as he gave and received, should be warped in the land of his birth, must remain a matter of regret."