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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Thesis
1970s

Black entrepreneurship in the US: An historical appraisal, contemporary problems and future prospects (a study in demand for entrepreneurship), 1971

Student
A 1971 MIT dissertation by Robert Bofah examining the historical development of Black entrepreneurship in the United States and the structural barriers to its growth.
Other Researchers
The Negro and MIT
Article
1960s

The Negro and MIT, 1968

Student
An essay by MIT student Robert Fleming '71 published in 1968, examining the role and presence of Black students and faculty at the Institute during a pivotal moment in civil rights history.
Other Researchers
Victor C. Smith
Thesis
1930s

A study of homogenous combustion in gases, 1930

Student
The 1930 ScD thesis of Victor Claude Smith, one of the earliest Black doctoral graduates in chemical engineering in the United States, on combustion chemistry at MIT.
Other Researchers
Islandborn, 2018
Book
2010s

Islandborn, 2018

Faculty
A picture book by Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz, inspired by a child's longing for her Dominican homeland, celebrating culture, memory, and belonging.
Other Researchers
Thesis
1970s

Coping with Poverty and Prejudice: How Rural Blacks Adapt Environmentally to the Constraints of Society, 1978 [duplicate]

Student
A 1978 MIT thesis (alternate record) examining how poverty and racial prejudice shape the physical environments of rural Black Americans in the South.
Other Researchers
James Edward Young, 1946
Thesis
1950s

Propagation of sound in attenuating ducts containing absorptive strips, 1953

Student
A 1953 MIT doctoral thesis by James E. Young, who would become the Department of Physics' first Black tenured faculty member, on sound propagation in ducts with absorptive strips.
Other Researchers
Black Panther: Jungle Action (1973)
Other
1970s

Black Panther: Panther's Rage (1973)

Multiple
The 1973 Marvel comic story arc introducing Erik Killmonger, whose fictional backstory as an MIT-educated engineer shaped one of Black Panther's most enduring villains.
Other Researchers
Technology Review MIT News cover Jan/Feb 2018
Article
2010s

The Remarkable Career of Shirley Ann Jackson, 2017

Multiple
A Technology Review profile of Shirley Ann Jackson '68 PhD '73 — the first Black woman to earn a PhD from MIT — tracing her career in physics, policy, and university leadership.
Other Researchers
The present state of Hayti (Saint Domingo), 1971
Book
1970s

The present state of Hayti (Saint Domingo), 1828 [1971]

Faculty
A book offering a rare 19th-century firsthand account of Haitian agriculture, commerce, laws, and society, reissued in 1971 with context connecting it to MIT's history.
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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