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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Mind and Hand
Book
2000s

Mind and Hand: The Birth of MIT, 2005

No items found.
A 2005 MIT Press history of the Institute's founding, tracing the origins of MIT's motto 'Mens et Manus' and the vision behind America's first major research university.
Other Researchers
Report
1980s

The Racial Climate on the MIT Campus, 1986

Administrator
A report examining the racial climate at MIT, documenting the experiences of Black students, faculty, and staff and recommending concrete steps to improve the campus environment.
Other Researchers
Report
1970s

A Study of the Number of Black Graduate Student Applications for Fall, 1970

No items found.
A 1970 statistical study of Black graduate school applicants across 25 major universities, examining enrollment trends and barriers at the height of the civil rights era.
Other Researchers
Joseph Applegate
Article
1990s

Professor Joseph Applegate, 1997

Administrator
A Tech Talk article profiling Joseph Applegate, MIT's first Black faculty member and a pioneering linguist, published for African-American Heritage Month in 1997.
MIT Black History Project
Article splash
Article
1990s

A Break in the Pipeline, 1999

Administrator
A 1999 Technology Review article examining the underrepresentation of Black faculty and students in the academic pipeline at MIT and peer institutions.
Other Researchers
Brochure cover
Proceedings
1980s

1st National Conference on Issues Facing Black Administrators at Predominantly White Colleges and Universities, 1982

Administrator
Proceedings from the 1982 national conference examining the challenges faced by Black administrators working in predominantly white colleges and universities.
MIT Black History Project
Shorter Views
Article
1990s

The Rhetoric of Sex, the Discourse of Desire, 1992

Visiting
An article by science fiction author Samuel Delany, originally delivered as a 1992 MIT lecture, exploring the rhetoric of sex and the politics of desire in literary and cultural discourse.
Other Researchers
Ebony & Ivy cover
Book
2010s

Ebony and Ivy, 2013

Faculty
A history of how elite American universities including Harvard and MIT were shaped by and helped perpetuate the ideology and economy of slavery, by scholar Craig Steven Wilder.
Other Researchers
NACA Report: Dynamics of Mechanical Feedback-Type Hydraulic Servomotors Under Inertia Loads, 1953
Report
1950s

NACA Report: Dynamics of Mechanical Feedback-Type Hydraulic Servomotors Under Inertia Loads, 1953

Alum
A NACA technical report by MIT-trained aeronautical engineer Yenwith Whitney analyzing the dynamics of hydraulic servomotors used in aircraft control systems.
Other Researchers
The study of a multiperipheral model with continued cross channel unitarity, 1973
Thesis
2017
Other Researchers
1970s
Other Researchers
1970s
Thesis
A 1973 MIT thesis by Shirley Ann Jackson '68, the first Black woman to earn a PhD from MIT, on particle physics and the multiperipheral model.
Student
Tunneling density of states behavior in superconducting niobium-titanium, 1968
Thesis
2017
Other Researchers
1960s
Other Researchers
1960s
Thesis
A 1968 MIT undergraduate thesis by Shirley Ann Jackson on superconducting tunneling junctions, the first of her two MIT degrees and the beginning of a historic scientific career.
Student
Coping with poverty and prejudice: how rural blacks adapt environmentally to the constraints of society, 1978
Thesis
2017
Other Researchers
1970s
Other Researchers
1970s
Thesis
A 1978 MIT thesis examining how poverty and racial prejudice shape the physical environments, homes, and communities of rural Black Americans in the South.
Student
The influence of meaningful citizen participation on the urban renewal process and the renewal of the inner-city's black community: a case study, 1969
Thesis
2017
Other Researchers
1960s
Other Researchers
1960s
Thesis
A 1969 MIT thesis by Reginald Griffith '55 examining how meaningful community participation can transform urban renewal outcomes in inner-city Black neighborhoods.
Student
Energy absorption and vibrational heating in molecules following intense laser excitation, 1976
Thesis
2017
Other Researchers
1970s
Other Researchers
1970s
Thesis
A 1975 MIT doctoral thesis examining energy absorption and vibrational heating in molecules following intense laser excitation.
Student
Class Struggle: Poor, Black and Smart, An Inner-City Teen Tries to Survive M.I.T., 1994
Article
2017
Other Researchers
1990s
Other Researchers
1990s
Article
A 1994 Wall Street Journal feature following Cedric Jennings, a Black teenager from inner-city Washington D.C., as he navigates the pressures of MIT's first year.
No items found.
Symmetry Principles in Selected Problems of String Theory, 1973
Thesis
2017
Other Researchers
1970s
Other Researchers
1970s
Thesis
A 1973 MIT doctoral thesis by S. James Gates Jr., the first thesis ever devoted to supersymmetry in physics, marking a landmark in theoretical particle physics.
Student
Ebony Affair: Twenty Years of Ebony, 1995
Article
2017
Other Researchers
1990s
Other Researchers
1990s
Article
Program booklet for the 1995 Ebony Affair, MIT's 20th annual celebration organized by the Black Students' Union showcasing Black student achievement and community.
Student
Melissa Nobles: All About the Count, 2007
Article
2017
Other Researchers
2000s
Other Researchers
2000s
Article
A 2007 MIT News profile of political science professor Melissa Nobles, whose research on racial classification and census politics shaped policy debates internationally.
Faculty
Mens et Mania: The MIT Nobody Knows, 2011
Book
2017
Other Researchers
2010s
Other Researchers
2010s
Book
A behind-the-scenes memoir by MIT linguistics professor Jay Keyser, offering a candid and witty portrait of life at the Institute away from its public-facing reputation.
Administrator
The Territory Between Us: A Report on "Black Women in the Academy..." 1994
Article
2017
Other Researchers
1990s
Other Researchers
1990s
Article
An article by scholar Saidiya Hartman reporting on the landmark 1994 'Black Women in the Academy' conference held at MIT, attended by over 2,000 scholars and activists.
No items found.
Black Firms to Share MIT Life Insurance Business, 1976
Article
2017
Other Researchers
1970s
Other Researchers
1970s
Article
A 1976 MIT report documenting the Institute's decision to share life insurance business with two major Black-owned insurance companies as part of its diversity commitments.
Administrator
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