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THE POLITICS OF PARTICULARISM: HBCUs, SPELMAN COLLEGE, AND THE STRUGGLE TO EDUCATE BLACK WOMEN IN SCIENCE, 1950-1997 A Dissertation Presented to The Academic Faculty By Olivia A. Scriven In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the History and Sociology of Technology and Science School of History, Technology, and Society of the Ivan Allen College Georgia Institute of Technology August 2006 Copyright © 2006 by Olivia A. Scriven THE POLITICS OF PARTICULARISM: HBCUs, SPELMAN COLLEGE, AND THE STRUGGLE TO EDUCATE BLACK WOMEN IN SCIENCE, 1950-1997 Approved: Steven W. Usselman, Co-Chair School of History, Technology, and Society Georgia Institute of Technology Willie Pearson, Jr., Co-Chair School of History, Technology, and Society Georgia Institute of Technology Sue V. Rosser Ivan Allen College Georgia Institute of Technology Ronald Bayor School of History, Technology, and Society Georgia Institute of Technology Eleanor Alexander School of History, Technology, and Society Georgia Institute of Technology Evelynn M. Hammonds History of Science Harvard University Date Approved: 06 July 2006 Education is not a neutral process. Whenever decisions are made about what is taught and how it is taught, a political statement is made. Johnetta Cross Brazzell, Bricks Without Straw, 1992 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation has been more than 15 years in the making, from the day in late spring of 1991 when I first met Etta Falconer, a key actor in this narrative, to her death from cancer in the fall of 2002. In the years that I worked with Dr. Falconer (I never referred to her as anything other, despite a personal relationship that extended beyond the college campus), I knew the Spelman story was exceptional and frequently prodded science faculty to “claim” their achievements and document their efforts. Thank goodness Beverly Guy-Sheftall, founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center at Spelman College, was able to convince a begrudging Falconer to put pen to paper in 1989 in preparation for a special issue of SAGE: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women that would be devoted to the roles and contributions of African American women in science and technology. Similar to many educators of Falconer’s generation and to educators at HBCUs more broadly, she claimed never to have the time to write these stories; too busy, I suppose, tending to the business of educating Black youth. That brief, but important three-page article in SAGE was the only piece Falconer ever published about the growth of the Spelman science program, and my personal interview of her in 1999 was one of a few that she ever granted. The racism that Falconer experienced as a Ph.D.-trained Black, female mathematician in navigating the U.S. scientific enterprise to support the students of Spelman translated into skepticism about iv what researchers ultimately did with the data and charges that appropriate credit was never accorded to Spelman College as an educational entrepreneur in undergraduate science education reform efforts. Falconer never asked me to write the history of Spelman but was incredibly supportive when she learned of my efforts, as were others – beginning with my own family. I am the youngest of two children born to parents with southern roots who believed in education but never graduated high school. In the boom of the post-WWII economy, the opportunity to travel north to make money took precedence, though both would earn the general equivalency diploma late in life. Neither Harold nor Delores would live to see me complete this rite of passage, dying from diseases which continue to burden the African American community. The strength of my mother’s image (lugging a shopping cart on a New York City subway which she had loaded with a set of encyclopedias given to her by a Jewish employer whose apartment she cleaned several days a week) carried me through undergrad at New York University. A black-and-white photo of my mother, smiling carefree with three lifelong girlfriends, sits atop a piano in my dining room- turned-dissertation war room. That photo and childhood memories kept me sane and focused through requests by my dissertation co-chairs to analyze the data more critically and to take another pass on a chapter which I stubbornly believed to be good enough. I had the fortune of having two dissertation co-chairs who oversaw my work, Steve Usselman, an historian, and Willie Pearson, Jr., a sociologist. Steve’s reputation amongst the graduate students is infamous – hard-nosed and critical. But that didn’t stop many v from asking Steve to be on their committees. We all knew that behind the prodding was a commitment to the graduate school process and to our growth as scholars capable of critical analysis. It was Steve who, unbeknownst to me, recommended me for the Georgia Tech President’s Fellowship (which I was awarded) and took a keen interest in my research topic, though it was well outside of his primary specialty as an historian of technology. One would have thought Tech had recruited a movie star when I learned Willie Pearson, Jr. was being considered to chair the HTS program. For more than two decades, Willie has documented the role of HBCUs in educating African American scientists, the contributions of U.S.-born Blacks to science, and the disconnect between federal policy and support for institutions that are demonstrably successful – HBCUs. Willie’s body of work informs my own, and his encouragement, support, and guidance to tell the story in direct and unapologetic terms was tremendously humbling and inspiring. My other committee members were also supportive, even if they rarely saw me but accommodated my preference for e-mail. Sue Rosser’s questions about the place of Spelman within larger studies on productive science programs at other women’s institutions nationally have sparked ideas that I hope to address through later projects. And while Eleanor Alexander and Ron Bayor are not historians of science, the two offered perspectives that speak generally to the need to facilitate greater dialogue between those who study science and technology with scholars in other areas. vi My external committee member, Evelynn Hammonds, became a source of inspiration when I first read the seminal interview Aimee Sands conducted with her in 1993. Thirteen years after earning the doctoral degree in the history of science from Harvard University, Evelynn is still one of only a handful of African Americans and African American women studying in the field. We both find the numbers curious and unacceptable. Evelynn’s commitment to increasing our interest and presence is evidenced by her own example, agreeing to serve on my committee despite an extraordinary load as senior vice provost at Harvard. Early in this process, I was awarded a President’s Fellowship from Georgia Tech, generous funding which off-set the cost of tuition and books. A later fellowship in 1996 from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation, under that organization’s Career Development Grants Program, enabled me to travel to conduct research at Bryn Mawr and present the initial findings of my work at AAUW’s annual symposium in 1999. The Bryn Mawr community was especially welcoming, including Nancy J. Vickers, president; Rhonda J. Hughes and Danielle Carr, faculty in mathematics; Nona C. Smith, director of sponsored research; Jan Trembley, editor of the Byrn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin, and all of the extremely helpful staff in the archives and at the Wyndham Guest House. I thank both Tech and AAUW for providing me with the funding to continue my studies, explore the resources of Bryn Mawr, and network with other women who were engaged in similar efforts to obtain the doctoral degree. The small community of faculty-scholars, graduate students, and staff in the History, vii Technology and Society (HTS) program at Georgia Tech were also instrumental. Bruce Sinclair, who chaired the HTS program in 1996, went out of his way to recruit me to the program and sent special congratulations when he learned I passed my oral defense. The ever-affable Gus Giebelhaus sat in on my defense, even though he didn’t have an advance copy of my manuscript. When I drifted into one of the “unseen” after finishing my course work and qualifying exams, Gus and other HTS faculty with whom I had worked and studied, Greg Noble and Doug Flamming amongst them, always seemed genuinely happy to see me and inquired earnestly about my progress. The significance of small gestures such as those are difficult to appreciate in the moment, but are the source of nice memories during moments of reflection. As a nontraditional student, my experience at Tech would have been characterized solely by classes, research, and writing had it not been for the support and fellowship of my other grad colleagues -- Haven Hawley, Ben Shackelford, Tim Stoneman, Kamau Bobb, and Kathy Brice. I was pleasantly surprised to see Steven Henderson, a staff member, come to one of my presentations and express interest in the topic. Denise Corum has been one of the few mainstays who has known me from the beginning. And when I began to get frazzled at the end from the bureaucracy that is Tech, LaDonna Bowen patiently helped me navigate through the endless forms and unforgiving deadlines. In and outside of Spelman, I must thank all those who would kindly ask, “How’s it going?”and rejoiced loudly at the news that I had finally finished – Sylvia Bozeman, Audrey Manley, Connie Gillyard, Peter Chen, Jean-Marie Dimandja, Barbara Bell, Al viii Thompson, Danny Flanigan, Cynthia Spence, Andrea Barnwell, Ayoka Chenzira, Anne Bailey, Eloise Alexis, Anna Scott, Shelia McClure, Fatemeh Shafiei, Johnnetta Cole, Freddye Hill, Angela Getter, Jesse Lutabingwa, Mary Patterson McPherson, Danielle Carr Ramdath, and numerous others whose names I may have overlooked but whose kind words and well wishes I sincerely appreciate.

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