Perspective...

OK, I know this is a physics blog.

However, these gentlemen were physical chemists at a time where the opportunity to do research was gated by a large door called segregation.

James Brown sang: "I don't want no body to give me nothing.  Open up the door: I'll get it myself!"

Now that the door is open, our young people are more enamored with persons that should be persona non grata to our community as typified on video fantasies that the perpetrators either never lived, or at the best no longer care to live.

I found this gem on ScienceMag.org in their MySciNet: An Inclusive Community section.  I offer it as inspiration:

As we delved into the life and career of Larry Knox (as he was universally known), we learned that his older brother. William Knox Jr., had received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1935, 5 years before Larry received his in organic chemistry from Harvard. (Another Knox, Clinton, received a Ph.D. in history in 1940. He was William and Larry’s younger brother.) William and Larry were two of about 30 African Americans earning Ph.D.s in all branches of chemistry between 1916 and 1940.

Article: Perspective: Stumbling Through History: Discovering Unsung African American Chemists