Ernest Everett Just

• Born: August 14, 1883
• Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina
• Died: October 27, 1941
• Place of death: Washington, D.C.

Scientist, educator, and writer

Just’s extensive zoological research advanced knowledge of fertilization in marine invertebrates. Limited by racial discrimination in Depression-era America, he spent several years in Europe, where he was able to clarify the role of cell surfaces in the development of organisms.

Areas of achievement: Education; Science and technology

Early Life

Amid the celebrations of Charleston’s centennial, Ernest Everett Just was born to Mary Matthews Cooper Just, a seamstress, and Charles Fraser Just, a dock builder. Before Just was one year old, he lost his older brother to cholera and his sister to diphtheria. In 1885 and 1886, a younger brother and sister joined the family, but tragedy struck again in 1887, when Just’s his father and grandfather died. Mary found employment teaching African American children in a grade school and working in a phosphate mine on James Island. There, she was so successful in founding an African American town that it was named Maryville in her honor. She nursed Just through a debilitating bout with typhoid fever and oversaw his early education. She later sent him to a boarding school for black students in Orangeburg, South Carolina, where he completed his course of studies in 1899, after only three years.

With his mother’s encouragement, Just went to Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire, where he had been awarded a scholarship. Despite the isolation of being the only African American student, he completed the four-year program in three years. His mother died before she could see him graduate with the highest grades in his class.

Just attended nearby Dartmouth College, where he studied the Greek and Roman classics before switching to biology. In 1907, he graduated magna cum laude, but he soon realized that academic opportunities were severely limited for even highly talented African Americans in early twentieth century America.

Life’s Work

Unable to get a position at a prestigious university, Just accepted an appointment to teach English composition to African Americans at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Because of the influence of Howard’s president, Just was later able to teach biology and zoology with such success that he became an associate professor in 1911 and a full professor in 1912. Just acquired research experience and made important professional contacts by working during the summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He became a research assistant to the laboratory’s director, Frank Rattray Lillie, who also was head of the Zoology Department at the University of Chicago. Firmly established as a teacher and scientist, Just was able to marry Ethel Highwarden, a teacher and businesswoman whom he had long courted. They eventually had three children. With the help of Jacques Loeb, a German American physiologist at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research who was interested in improving medical education for African Americans, Just was able to advance his career. Through the influence of Lillie, Just took a leave from Howard to obtain his doctorate in experimental embryology from the University of Chicago in 1916.

Through the 1920’s, Just taught at Howard and conducted research at Woods Hole in the summers. His interests centered on the embryology of various marine invertebrates, and he became especially fascinated by parthenogenesis, the process through which such organisms as the sea urchin can be artificially made to reproduce from an unfertilized egg. Through his work, Just deepened, expanded, and corrected the pioneering studies of Loeb. His well-received scientific papers led to grants; he received the first grant awarded to an African American by the National Research Council. Despite his achievements, Just failed to obtain any offers from first-rate American universities, which he attributed to racial discrimination. Consequently, during the 1930’s, he spent more and more time in Europe, where he felt his talents were better appreciated.

Just continued his research on marine invertebrates at the Naples Zoological Station in Italy. He also was invited to do research at the prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, Germany, and at the Sorbonne in Paris. While in Germany, he fell in love with Hedwig Schnetzler, a philosophy student working on her doctorate. He obtained a divorce from his first wife in 1939 and married Schnetzler. The couple planned to reside in France, where Just hoped to become a French citizen. During this time, he published the two books that constituted a summary of his research on small marine animals: The Biology of the Cell Surface (1939) and Basic Methods for Experiments on Eggs of Marine Animals (1940).World War II interrupted Just’s plans, and after the German invasion of France, he was briefly imprisoned before American officials were able to effect his release. In September of 1940, he returned to Howard University in the United States. By then, he was suffering from pancreatic cancer, which brought about his death in 1941.

Significance

In his lifetime, Just completed more than sixty scientific papers and two classic books that cemented his reputation as a trailblazing researcher in the embryology of marine invertebrates and cell physiology. For his early work on the fertilization process in a sandworm, Just received the first Spingarn Medal of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The high quality of his later research was recognized with various grants from American and European institutions. Besides his experimental research, Just also developed important ideas about phenomena in the cell surface and cytoplasm that he believed were as important as events in the cell nucleus. In 1996, he was posthumously honored with a postage stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service and became the first African American biologist to be commemorated in this way.

Bibliography

Bleifeld, Maurice. “Ernest Everett Just, 1883-1941.” In Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists, edited by Emily J. McMurray. Vol. 2. New York: Gale Research, 1995. Biographical sketch that includes selected writings by Just and references to books and periodicals about him.

Kessler, James H., et al., eds. Distinguished African American Scientists of the Twentieth Century. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1996. Contains extended biographies of one hundred scientists, including Just. The book’s principal theme is how these scientists overcame racial prejudice to achieve prominence. Illustrated with photographs and portraits. Index.

Lillie, Frank R. “Ernest Everett Just: August 14, 1883, to October 27, 1941.” Science 95 (January 2, 1941): 10-11. Brief obituary written by Just’s mentor, colleague, and friend.

Manning, Kenneth R. Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Highly respected biography based on an intimate knowledge of many primary and secondary sources. Includes a list of Just’s publications, extensive notes, and a detailed index.