Ernest Everett Just

Ernest Everett Just
Born 14 August 1883
Charleston, South Carolina
Died 14 October 1941 (aged 58)
Washington D.C.
Residence United States, Italy, Germany, France
Nationality American
Fields biology, zoology, botany, history, and sociology
Institutions
Alma mater Dartmouth College
University of Chicago
Doctoral advisor Frank R. Lillie
Known for marine biology
cytology
parthenogenesis
Notable awards Spingarn Medal (1915)

Ernest Everett Just (August 14, 1883 – October 27, 1941) was a pioneering African-American biologist, academic and science writer. Just's primary legacy is his recognition of the fundamental role of the cell surface in the development of organisms. In his work within marine biology, cytology and parthenogenesis, he advocated the study of whole cells under normal conditions, rather than simply breaking them apart in a laboratory setting.

Early life

Just was born in South Carolina to Charles Frazier Just Jr. and Mary Matthews Just on August 14, 1883. His father and grandfather, Charles Sr., were dock builders. When Ernest was four years old, both his father and grandfather died. Ernest's father died of alcoholism.[1] Just’s mother became the sole supporter of Just, 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 worked in the phosphate mines on James Island. Noticing that there was much vacant land near the island, Mary persuaded several black families to move there to farm. The town they founded, now incorporated in the West Ashley area of Charleston, was eventually named Maryville in her honor.[2] After his father died it was hard living just with his mother.

When Just was young he became dreadfully sick for six weeks with typhoid. Once the fever passed he had a hard time recuperating, and his memory had been greatly affected. He had previously learned to read and write with a great amount of excellence for someone so young. Now he had to go through the process all over again. His mother had been very sympathetic in teaching him but after a while she gave up on him. Then one day he read his first page- by himself, this seemed miraculous. He kept his new secret to himself for a month before telling his mother because he felt she had hurt him with her unreasonable expectations.[3]

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. Believing that schools for blacks in the south were inferior, Just and his mother thought it better for him to go north. At the age of sixteen, Just enrolled at a Meriden, New Hampshire college-preparatory high school, Kimball Union Academy. During Just's second year at Kimball, he decided to return home for a visit only to hear that his mother had been buried an hour before he arrived.[3] Despite this hardship, Just completed the four-year program in only three years and graduated in 1903 with the highest grades in his class.[4]

Just went on to graduate magna cum laude from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.[5] Just won special honors in zoology, and distinguished himself in botany, history, and sociology as well. He was also honored as a Rufus Choate scholar for two years and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.[4] Just was also a candidate to deliver a commencement speech, but was not chosen because faculty “decided it would be a faux pas to allow the only black in the graduating class to address the crowd of parents, alumni, and benefactors. It would have made too glaring the fact that Just had won just about every prize imaginable." [3]


Founding of Omega Psi Phi

On November 17, 1911, Ernest assisted three Howard students (Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper, and Frank Coleman), in establishing Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Love, Cooper, and Coleman approached Just about establishing a black fraternity on campus. Howard's faculty and administration initially opposed the idea fearing a political threat this could pose to Howard's white administration. Despite the administration's initial doubts, Ernest Just worked to mediate the controversy. Omega Psi Phi, Alpha Chapter, was established on December 15, 1911.[1]

Career

When he graduated 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 choice 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. Just first began teaching rhetoric and English at Howard University in 1907, a field somewhat removed from his specialty. By 1909 he was teaching English, Biology and still later, Zoology.[6] In 1912, he became head of the Department of Zoology, a position he held until his death in 1941. Not long after his appointment at Howard, Just was introduced to Frank R. Lillie, head of the biology department at the University of Chicago. Lillie, who was also chief of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, invited Just to spend the summer of 1909 as his research assistant at the MBL. For the next 20 years, Just spent every summer but one at MBL. On June 12, 1912, Ernest married Ethel Highwarden, who taught German at Howard University. They had three children: Margaret, Highwarden, and Maribel.

Just spent at least 20 summer sessions at Woods Hole, he learned to handle specimens with skill and understanding; in time he was in great demand for those looking for advice and assistance in the field of biology.[7] 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 February 12, 1915, the medal recognized his scientific achievements and his “foremost service to his race." [3] He began his graduate training at the marine biological laboratory in 1909 with the course in marine invertebrates and in 1910 in embryology. In 1911-1912 he was a research assistant, his experiments focused on marine eggs, fertilization and breeding habits of the sea-urchin Arbacia. His duties at Howard delayed the completion of his work and receiving his Ph.D. degree at the University of Chicago until 1916.[7] In June 1916, Just received his Ph.D. in zoology, with a thesis on the mechanics of fertilization, from the University of Chicago, becoming one of the handful of blacks who had gained this degree from a major university. By the time he got his Ph.D. in 1916, he had already co-authored a paper with Lillie.[6] During his tenure at Woods Hole, Just rose from student apprentice to internationally respected scientist. His knowledge of the proper handling of marine invertebrate eggs and embryos was legendary, and biologists at all levels sought his advice. A careful and meticulous experimentalist, he was regarded as "a genius in the design of experiments."[8]

Just, however, became 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 research. Just’s scientific career was a constant struggle for opportunity for research, the breath of his life. He was condemned by race to remain attached to Howard, an institution that could not give him full opportunity to ambitions such as his.[7] In 1929, he conducted experiments at the prestigious zoological station 'Anton Dohrn' 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. Altogether from his first trip in 1929, Just made ten or more visits to Europe to pursue research. Scientists treated him like a celebrity and encouraged him to extend his theory on the ectoplasm to other species. [7] Just enjoyed traveling to Europe because he did not face as much discrimination there in comparison to the U.S. and when he did encounter racism, it invariably came from Americans.[3] Beginning in 1933, Just ceased his work in Germany when the Nazis began to take the control of the country. He relocated his European-based studies to Paris.

Just authored two books, Basic Methods for Experiments on Eggs of Marine Animals (1939) and The Biology of the Cell Surface (1939), and he also published at least seventy papers in the areas of cytology, fertilization and early embryonic development.[9] He discovered what is known as the fast block for polyspermy; he further elucidated the slow block, which had been discovered by Fol in the 1870s; and he showed that the adhesive properties of the cells of the early embryo are surface phenomena exquisitely dependent on developmental stage.[10] He believed that the conditions used for experiments in the laboratory should closely match those in nature; in this sense he can be considered to have been an early ecological developmental biologist.[11] His work on experimental parthenogenesis informed Johannes Holtfreter's concept of "autoinduction"[12] which, in turn, has broadly influenced modern evolutionary and developmental biology.[13] His investigation of the movement of water into and out of living egg cells (all the while maintaining their full developmental potential) gave insights into internal cellular structure that are now being more fully elucidated using powerful biophysical tools and computational methods.[14][15][16][17] These experiments anticipated the non-invasive imaging of live cells that is being developed today. Although Just’s experimental work showed an important role for the cell surface and the layer below it, the "ectoplasm," in development, it was largely and unfortunately ignored.[18][19] This was true even with respect to scientists who emphasized the cell surface in their work. It was especially true of the Americans; with the Europeans he fared somewhat better.[7]

Death

At the outbreak of World War II, Ernest Just was working at the Station Biologique in Roscoff, researching the paper that would become Unsolved Problems of General Biology. Although the French government requested foreigners to evacuate the country, Just remained to complete his work. In 1940, Germany invaded France and Just was briefly imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp.[20] 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 encampment and his condition deteriorated in prison and on the journey back to the U.S. In the fall of 1941, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and died shortly thereafter.[21]

Legacy

Just was the subject of the 1983 biography Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just by Kenneth R. Manning. The book received the 1983 Pfizer Award and was a finalist for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.[22][23] Just has been featured in The Black Heritage Stamp series that began in 1978 honoring African Americans' greatest accomplishments. His stamp became available on February 1, 1996.[24]

In 1996, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Just.[24]

Beginning in 2000, the Medical University of South Carolina has hosted the annual Ernest E. Just Symposium to encourage non-white students to pursue careers in biomedical sciences and health professions.[25]/ In 2008, a National Science Foundation-funded symposium honoring Just and his scientific work was held on the campus of Howard University, where he was a faculty member from 1907 until his death in 1941. Many of the speakers at the symposium contributed papers to a special issue of the journal Molecular Reproduction and Development dedicated to Just that was published in 2009. Since 1994 the American Society for Cell Biology has given an award in Just's name. At least two of the institutions with which Just was associated have established prizes or symposia in his name: The University of Chicago, where Just received his PhD (in zoology, in 1916), and Dartmouth College, where he received his undergraduate degree. In 2013, an international symposium honoring Just was held at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy, where Just had worked starting in 1929.[26][27][28][29]

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Just on his list of the 100 Greatest African Americans.[30]

Just believed that "life as an event lies in a combination of chemical stuffs exhibiting physical properties; and it is in this combination, i.e., its behavior and activities, and in it alone that we can seek life.".[31] He also wrote: "[L]ife is the harmonious organization of events, the resultant of a communion of structures and reactions",[32] and "We [scientists] have often striven to prove life as wholly mechanistic, starting with the hypothesis that organisms are machines! Living substance is such because it possesses this organization--something more than the sum of its minutest parts" [33] He argued forcefully that the "ectoplasm," the outer region of the cytoplasm, and not the nucleus, constitutes the heart of the dynamic cell. He was convinced that the surface of the egg cell possesses an "independent irritability," which enables the egg (and all cells) to respond productively to diverse stimuli.[34]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Capital Region Ques, accessed Mar 14, 2013
  2. ↑ Donna Jacobs, "A BIT ON MARYVILLE - The People, Trials, and Tribulations of one of Charleston's first black enclaves", West Of,
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Manning, Kenneth R. (1984). Black Apollo of science : the life of Ernest Everett Just. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195034981.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ernest Just, Black Inventor Museum, accessed Oct 11, 2009
  5. ↑ Kelsey, Elizabeth. "Expansive Vision, Ahead of His Time: Dartmouth celebrates biologist E. E. Just, Class of 1907". Dartmouth Life. Dartmouth College. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lee, Edward (March 2006). "Ernest Everett Just". Blacfax: 15–16.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Lillie, Frank (1942). "Obituary". Science 95: 10–11. doi:10.1126/science.95.2453.10.
  8. ↑ Jeffery, William R. (1983) "Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941): a dedication. Biological Bulletin 165: 487.
  9. ↑ "Ernest Everett Just". San Jose State University Virtual Museum. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
  10. ↑ Just, E. E. (1939) The biology of the cell surface. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son and Co., Inc.
  11. ↑ Byrnes, W Malcolm; Eckberg, William R (2006). "Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941)--an early ecological developmental biologist.". Dev. Biol. 296 (1) (Aug 1, 2006). pp. 1–11.
  12. ↑ Byrnes, W. Malcolm (2009) Ernest Everett Just, Johannes Holtfreter, and the origin of certain concepts in embryo morphogenesis. Molecular Reproduction and Development 76 (11): 912-921
  13. ↑ Kirschner, M. W.; Gerhart, J. C. (2005) The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin's Dilemma. New Haven: Yale University Press
  14. ↑ Just, E. E. (1939) "Water" In: The biology of the cell surface. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son and Co., Inc., pp. 124-146
  15. ↑ Charras, G. T.; Mitchison, T. J.; Mahedevan, L. (2009) Animal cell hydraulics. J. Cell Sci. 122 (18): 3233-3241.
  16. ↑ Needleman, D.; Brugues, J. (2014) Determining physical principles of subcellular organization. Dev. Cell 29: 135-138.
  17. ↑ Byrnes, W. Malcolm; Newman, Stuart A. (2014) Ernest Everett Just: Egg and Embryo as Excitable Systems. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B (Molecular and Developmental Evolution) 322 (4): 191-201.
  18. ↑ Manning, Kenneth R. Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983
  19. ↑ Gilbert, Scott F. (1988) Cellular politics: Ernest Everett Just, Richard B. Goldschmidt, and the attempt to reconcile embryology and genetics. In: Rainger R., Benson D., Maienschein J., eds. The American Development of Biology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 311–346
  20. ↑ Kappa Alpha Psi
  21. ↑ W. Malcolm Byrnes and William R. Eckberg (August 2006). "Ernest Everett Just (1883–1941)—An early ecological developmental biologist". Developmental Biology. Retrieved 2009-12-09.
  22. ↑ "Pulitzer for Fiction Won by Author of ‘Ironweed’". The Spokesman-Review. April 16, 1984. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
  23. ↑ Garland E. Allen (November 1998). "Life Sciences in the Twentieth Century". History of Science Society. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Dr. Ernest E. Just Honored on New Black Heritage Stamp". Jet: p. 19. February 26, 1996.
  25. ↑ Shantae D. James (March 20, 2003). "Summary Statement of the 3rd Annual Ernest E. Just Symposium". Medical University of South Carolina. Retrieved 2009-10-23.
  26. ↑ L.Santella & JT. Chun, International Symposium - The dynamically active egg: The legacy of Ernest Everett Just, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn di Napoli, 13 maggio 2013
  27. ↑ Cristina Zagaria, Just, biologo afroamericano che trovò la libertà a Napoli, La Repubblica, 11-05-2013.
  28. ↑ W. Malcolm Byrnes, Walking in the Footsteps of Ernest Everett Just at the Stazione Zoologica in Naples: Celebration of a Friendship, Howard University, 15 May 2013
  29. ↑ W. Malcolm Byrnes, Sulle orme di E.E.Just alla Stazione Zoologica di Napoli: celebrazione di un’amicizia, researchitaly, 01/07/2013
  30. ↑ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002), 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.
  31. ↑ Just, Ernest Everett (1988). The Biology of the Cell Surface ([Facsim. ed.]. ed.). New York: Garland Pub. ISBN 978-0824013806.
  32. ↑ Just, E. E. The biology of the cell surface. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son and Co., Inc., 1939.
  33. ↑ Just, E. E. (1933) Cortical cytoplasm and evolution. Am. Nat. 67: 20-29.
  34. ↑ Newman, Stuart A. (2009) E. E. Just's "independent irritability" revisited: The activated egg as excitable soft matter. Molecular Reproduction and Development 76 (11): 966-974.

Further reading

External links