Ernest E. Just
*This date marks the birth of Ernest Everett Just in 1883. He was a Black biologist and educator who taught at Howard University for over 30 years.
Edward Everett Just was born in Charleston, S. C., and grew up in an atmosphere of learning. His early years were spent at Kimball Union, a preparatory school in New Hampshire, then at Dartmouth College, where he was the only Black in his class. Just switched his major from Greek to biology and graduated magna cum laude in 1907. Morehouse College wanted him, though he accepted a job as an instructor in English and rhetoric at Howard.
His popularity as a teacher was legendary; in 1911, he helped Howard students form Omega Psi Phi, which became a national Black fraternity, and he was made a full professor in 1912. Ernest Just believed Blacks should study science for its "objective" and "cold-blooded" rigor. In 1915, Here received the first Spingarn award from the NAACP.
Beginning in 1929, Just undertook a series of extended research tours to Italy, Germany, and France until 1940. Already ill with pancreatic cancer, Ernest Just spent his final year mending rifts with the Howard administration.
As his health worsened, Just moved into his sister's Washington, D. C., home, where he died in 1941.
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
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