Dr. Roger Arliner Young (August 20, 1899 – November 9, 1964) was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in Zoology. Born in Clifton Forge, Virginia, she came from a poor family and still overcame racial and gender norms to excel. She was the only child to a father that was a coal miner and to her disabled mother.
She originally enrolled at Howard University in 1916 to major in music, but she switched after her first zoology course with Dr. Ernest Everett Just. She obtained her BS (1923) in Biology from Howard, MS (1926) in Zoology at the University of Chicago (UC), and PhD (1940) in Zoology from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn).
She studied the internal structures of the paramecium in her MS. Her first manuscript from her was published in Science and she was invited to join Sigma Xi, a scientific honor society. Between her MS and PhD she worked at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in summers, briefly was the head of Zoology at Howard. Her research covered the fertilization of marine organisms and hydration and dehydration of cells.
Due to family challenges and rumored romance with Just, she was unable to finish her PhD at the University of Chicago, and eventually attended UPenn. Afterwards, she held positions at North Carolina College for Negroes, now North Carolina Central University (NCCU), Shaw University (Shaw U), Jackson State University (JSU), and Southern University (SU).
She excelled when many women were not allowed in or to advance in STEM fields. She was also a civil rights activist and trailblazer for many that came behind her. She was recognized in 2005, along with 4 other pioneering women, through a Congressional Resolution stating that “[they] have broken through many barriers to achieve greatness in science”. Sadly she passed away in poverty and suffering from mental issues.
References:
- https://dksuperiorclerk.com/mt-content/uploads/2022/02/black-history-series-roger-arliner-young.pdf
- https://marinesanctuary.org/blog/celebrating-wave-makers-dr-roger-arliner-young/
- https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/young-roger-arliner-1889-1964/
- https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200930-arliner-young-the-black-biologist-failed-by-science
- https://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/young.html
- https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/96/text
- https://rayfellowship.org/
Image Source:
Roger Arliner Young 1927-1929 or later, Marine Biological Laboratory Archives
