Publications

Publications

The MIT Black History Project is committed to collecting, developing, curating, and preserving content on the Black experience at MIT dating back to 1865. We are also currently working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the challenges we all face within the greater scope of the Institute’s mission and accomplishments.

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Report
1980s

Report on Issues, Implications and Recommendations Related to Retention of Undergraduate Minority Students: Science and Engineering Fields, 1987

Administrator
A report prepared for MIT by Clarence G. Williams examining retention barriers for Black and minority undergraduates in science and engineering fields.
Other Researchers
Discrimination Conference, 1955
Article
1950s

Discrimination Conference Issue of The Tech, 1955

Student
The March 1955 issue of MIT's student newspaper covering the National Conference on Selectivity and Discrimination in American Universities, held on campus.
Other Researchers
Tuskegee (Weather) Airmen article splash
Article
2000s

Tuskegee (Weather) Airmen: Black Meteorologists in World War II, 2006

No items found.
An article documenting the role of MIT-trained Black meteorologists, including Tuskegee Airmen, in advancing WWII weather forecasting and American military aviation.
Other Researchers
Article
2010s

Including the Excluded: Concepts for Successful Integration of the US Academy, 2014

Faculty
A lecture by MIT professor James Sherley on concepts for integrating underrepresented groups into the US scientific enterprise, delivered at a Johns Hopkins retreat.
Other Researchers
Paper
2000s

Civil Rights, the War on Poverty, and Black-White Convergence in Infant Mortality in the Rural South and Mississippi, 2006

Faculty
A 2006 public health study examining how civil rights legislation and the War on Poverty drove convergence in Black and white infant mortality rates in the rural South.
Other Researchers
Paper
1960s

Black Capitalism and Black Supermarkets, 1969

Faculty
A 1969 article by MIT economist Gordon Bloom examining the economics and social dimensions of Black-owned businesses and supermarkets in urban America.
Other Researchers
Article
2000s

MIT's Black Hole: Dr. James L. Sherley is just the latest professor to protest the lack of Black tenured faculty at MIT, 2007

No items found.
An article examining the broader pattern of Black faculty departures from MIT, placing the James Sherley case in the context of a longer institutional history.
Other Researchers
James L. Sherley
Article
2000s

An Avoidable Black Eye for MIT: Professor James Sherley Is Dismissed and His Laboratory Padlocked, 2007

No items found.
An analysis of the 2007 termination of MIT stem-cell researcher James L. Sherley, whose dismissal and hunger strike sparked a campus-wide debate on race and tenure.
Other Researchers
James L. Sherley
Article
2000s

It's No Picnic for Black Faculty at MIT, 2007

No items found.
A 2007 study documenting that Black faculty represent only about 3 percent of MIT's total faculty, analyzing the barriers to recruitment and retention.
Other Researchers
Type
Timeline
A Model for Counseling “High Promise” Minority Freshmen, 1974
Article
2017
MIT Black History Project
1970s
MIT Black History Project
1970s
Article
A 1974 paper proposing a counseling model for high-potential minority freshmen at MIT, addressing retention and academic support for underrepresented students.
Administrator
Transient Workspaces: Technologies of Everyday Innovation in Zimbabwe, 2014
Book
2017
Other Researchers
2010s
Other Researchers
2010s
Book
A book by MIT professor Clapperton Mavhunga examining how everyday innovation and African mobility traditions shaped technology and knowledge in Zimbabwe.
Faculty
Some Moments in My Life, 2013
Book
2017
Other Researchers
2010s
Other Researchers
2010s
Book
A book of poems and personal reflections by MIT alumnus Wilfrid Amisial '72, drawing on his Haitian heritage and Caribbean roots in a collection touching on faith, memory, and joy.
Alum
Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti, 2010
Book
2017
Other Researchers
2010s
Other Researchers
2010s
Book
A 2010 MIT Press book exploring the ethics of military and humanitarian intervention in Haiti following the 1991 coup, focusing on trauma, violence, and insecurity.
Faculty
Megacommunities, 2008
Book
2017
Other Researchers
2000s
Other Researchers
2000s
Book
A 2008 book by MIT-affiliated authors on cross-sector collaboration between business, government, and nonprofits to address large-scale global challenges.
Alum
I Will Love You, Forever! --The Quantum Mechanics of Love, 2009
Book
2017
Other Researchers
2000s
Other Researchers
2000s
Book
A memoir by MIT professor James H. Williams Jr. about love, the nature of human connection, and whether mutually intense love can transcend death.
Alum
Water Marked: A Novel, 1999
Book
2017
Other Researchers
1990s
Other Researchers
1990s
Book
A novel by MIT professor Helen Elaine Lee about two estranged African American sisters who reunite to understand their father, written in lyrical prose balancing grief and beauty.
Faculty
The Properties of Violence: Claims to Ownership in Representations of Lynching, 2013
Book
2017
Other Researchers
2010s
Other Researchers
2010s
Book
A book by MIT professor Saidiya Hartman examining representations of lynching in American culture and the contested questions of ownership in the history of racial violence.
Faculty
The Politics of Official Apologies, 2008
Book
2017
Other Researchers
2000s
Other Researchers
2000s
Book
A book by MIT professor Melissa Nobles examining how official government apologies in the US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are deployed for political purposes.
Faculty
Aerospace Engineer Aprille Ericsson, 2015
Book
2017
Other Researchers
2010s
Other Researchers
2010s
Book
A children's biography of NASA aerospace engineer Aprille Ericsson, tracing her journey from science fair competitor to trailblazing rocket scientist and role model.
Alum
Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington, 2011
Book
2017
Other Researchers
2010s
Other Researchers
2010s
Book
A book interweaving the life of Robert Robinson Taylor, MIT's first Black graduate and the first accredited Black architect, with the story of his 40-year career building Tuskegee Institute.
Alum
Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just, 1983
Book
2017
Other Researchers
1980s
Other Researchers
1980s
Book
A biography of Ernest Everett Just, the pioneering African American marine biologist whose extraordinary scientific career was shaped by racial barriers in early 20th-century America.
Faculty
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