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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The Mobile Workshop: The Tsetse Fly and African Knowledge Production, 2018
Book
2010s

The Mobile Workshop: The Tsetse Fly and African Knowledge Production, 2018

Faculty
A book by MIT professor Clapperton Mavhunga examining how African hunters and knowledge producers in Zimbabwe shaped colonial science and wildlife management.
Other Researchers
Gloria Green Hooks
Oral History
1990s

Transcript: Interview with Gloria Green, 1997

Multiple
An oral history interview with Gloria Green Hooks, the second Black woman to attend MIT (45 years after Marie C. Turner), recounting her student experience at the Institute.
MIT Black History Project
Article
2010s

Race in Digital Space: Conceptualizing the Media Project, 2014

Visiting
An article examining the 2014 Race in Digital Space exhibition at MIT's List Visual Arts Center, which explored how race shapes digital media, algorithms, and online identity.
Other Researchers
Thesis
1990s

Developing a paradigm for visualizing architecture using computational methods : an analysis of the Havana Project by Lebbeus Woods, 1996

Student
A 1996 MIT thesis developing computational visualization methods for architectural design, using Lebbeus Woods's Havana Project as a case study.
Other Researchers
Thesis
2000s

A Reliable Low Bandwidth Email-based Communication Protocol, 2001

Student
A 2001 MIT thesis proposing an email-based communication protocol for low-bandwidth and intermittent network conditions, with applications for developing regions.
Other Researchers
A Decisive Decade: An Insider’s View of the Chicago Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s, 2013
Book
2010s

A Decisive Decade: An Insider’s View of the Chicago Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s, 2013

Faculty
MIT professor Robert McKersie's personal account of the Chicago civil rights movement during the 1960s, drawn from his direct involvement in the era's pivotal moments.
Other Researchers
Adam Clayton Powell IV
Thesis
1990s

Transport phenomena in electron beam melting and evaporation, 1997

Student
A 1997 MIT doctoral thesis by Adam Clayton Powell IV on heat transfer and fluid dynamics in electron beam melting, with connections to the Powell family's legacy at the Institute.
Other Researchers
Yaw Yeboah in 1975
Oral History
1990s

Transcript: Interview with Yaw D. Yeboah, 1996

Alum
An oral history interview with Yaw D. Yeboah '75, a Ghanaian MIT alumnus who earned four degrees in four years, conducted for the Technology and the Dream project.
MIT Black History Project
Article
1980s

Dismissed prof sparks controversy, 1989

Faculty
A 1989 article on the controversial dismissal of MIT faculty member Marilyn Richardson, documenting tensions around race and academic freedom at the Institute.
Other Researchers
Type
Timeline
Including the Excluded: Concepts for Successful Integration of the US Academy, 2014
Article
2017
Other Researchers
2010s
Other Researchers
2010s
Article
A lecture by MIT professor James Sherley on concepts for integrating underrepresented groups into the US scientific enterprise, delivered at a Johns Hopkins retreat.
Faculty
Civil Rights, the War on Poverty, and Black-White Convergence in Infant Mortality in the Rural South and Mississippi, 2006
Paper
2017
Other Researchers
2000s
Other Researchers
2000s
Paper
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.
Faculty
Black Capitalism and Black Supermarkets, 1969
Paper
2017
Other Researchers
1960s
Other Researchers
1960s
Paper
A 1969 article by MIT economist Gordon Bloom examining the economics and social dimensions of Black-owned businesses and supermarkets in urban America.
Faculty
MIT's Black Hole: Dr. James L. Sherley is just the latest professor to protest the lack of Black tenured faculty at MIT, 2007
Article
2017
Other Researchers
2000s
Other Researchers
2000s
Article
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.
No items found.
An Avoidable Black Eye for MIT: Professor James Sherley Is Dismissed and His Laboratory Padlocked, 2007
Article
2017
Other Researchers
2000s
Other Researchers
2000s
Article
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.
No items found.
It's No Picnic for Black Faculty at MIT, 2007
Article
2017
Other Researchers
2000s
Other Researchers
2000s
Article
A 2007 study documenting that Black faculty represent only about 3 percent of MIT's total faculty, analyzing the barriers to recruitment and retention.
No items found.
MIT's Mea Culpa: Now, What About Black Faculty?, 1999
Article
2017
Other Researchers
1990s
Other Researchers
1990s
Article
A 1999 analysis of MIT's landmark report on discrimination against women faculty, and whether its findings would prompt similar action for Black faculty.
No items found.
The Scientific Development of the Negro, 1911
Paper
2017
Other Researchers
1910s
Other Researchers
1910s
Paper
A paper delivered by Robert Robinson Taylor '92 at MIT's 50th anniversary celebration in 1911, arguing for the scientific education of Black Americans as a path to progress.
Alum
The Civil Engineer, 1946
Article
2017
Other Researchers
1940s
Other Researchers
1940s
Article
An article profiling Lewis King Downing '24, the first Black graduate of MIT's Sloan School, who went on to a distinguished career as a civil engineer and college president.
Alum
The Desegregation of an Elite Economics Department’s PhD Program: Black Americans at MIT, 2014
Article
2017
Other Researchers
2010s
Other Researchers
2010s
Article
An article tracing the history of Black PhD students in MIT's economics department from the 1970s onward, examining barriers to entry and outcomes over four decades.
Alum
The African-American Linguist Who Broke the Faculty Barrier at MIT, 1997
Article
2017
Other Researchers
1990s
Other Researchers
1990s
Article
An article documenting how Joseph Applegate, MIT's first Black faculty member, broke the faculty color barrier as a linguist in 1955 and paved the way for those who followed.
No items found.
The battle for ‘Trayvon Martin’: Mapping a media controversy online and off-line, 2014
Article
2017
Other Researchers
2010s
Other Researchers
2010s
Article
An academic article by MIT professor Sasha Costanza-Chock analyzing how the Trayvon Martin case spread through social media and shaped public discourse on race and violence.
Faculty
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