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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Article
1990s

MIT's Mea Culpa: Now, What About Black Faculty?, 1999

No items found.
A 1999 analysis of MIT's landmark report on discrimination against women faculty, and whether its findings would prompt similar action for Black faculty.
Other Researchers
Technology and Insustrial Efficiency cover
Paper
1910s

The Scientific Development of the Negro, 1911

Alum
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.
Other Researchers
Article
1940s

The Civil Engineer, 1946

Alum
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.
Other Researchers
Article
2010s

The Desegregation of an Elite Economics Department’s PhD Program: Black Americans at MIT, 2014

Alum
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.
Other Researchers
J.R. Applegate
Article
1990s

The African-American Linguist Who Broke the Faculty Barrier at MIT, 1997

No items found.
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.
Other Researchers
Figure 2- The battle for ‘Trayvon Martin’
Article
2010s

The battle for ‘Trayvon Martin’: Mapping a media controversy online and off-line, 2014

Faculty
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.
Other Researchers
Article
1990s

Role Models and Mentors for Blacks at Predominantly White Campuses, 1994

Administrator
An article arguing that educators must invest in mentorship and role models for Black students at predominantly white institutions to improve retention and success.
MIT Black History Project
Grid of students prior to the Class of 1930
Thesis
1980s

Notes on Researching Blacks at MIT prior to the Class of 1930, 1983

Student
A 1983 MIT research note reconstructing the fragmentary records of early Black students at MIT before the Class of 1930.
Other Researchers
Type
Timeline
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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