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THE JOURNAL OF BLACKS IN HIGHER EDUCATION http://www.jbhe.com Weekly Bulletin June 5, 2003

BLACK ENROLLMENTS IN GRADUATE PROGRAMS ON THE RISE: New statistics released by the U.S. Department of Education show that in 2000 there were 158,000 black students enrolled in graduate programs in the United States. This was up 6 percent from the prior year...

The number of black students enrolled in graduate programs has more than doubled since 1980...

Black enrollments in professional degree programs such as law, medicine, and business management stood at 24,000 in the year 2000. This was an increase of 4 percent over the previous year... black enrollments <in professional degree programs for the past decade> have increased by 50 percent.

Over the past 20 years, black enrollments in professional degree programs have nearly doubled...

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THE JOURNAL OF BLACKS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Weekly Bulletin
June 26, 2003

SOLID INCREASE IN BLACK ENROLLMENTS IN GRADUATE SCIENCE PROGRAMS:

Data obtained by JBHE from the National Science Foundation shows that
in 2001 there were 9,014 black students enrolled in graduate programs
in the natural sciences and engineering. They made up 5 percent of
all graduate students in these disciplines. During the 1995 to 2001
period, total black enrollments in graduate programs in the natural
sciences and engineering increased by nearly 13 percent. During the
same period overall graduate enrollments in these fields actually
declined by about 9 percent.
The largest number of black graduate enrollments is in the
biological sciences. In 2001 there were 2,369 black graduate students
enrolled in this field. There were more than 1,700 black students
enrolled in computer science graduate programs. No other graduate
field in the hard sciences has a total black enrollment of more than
1,000 nationwide.
The number of black students enrolled in graduate programs in
computer science is up by nearly 50 percent from 1995. Black
enrollments in graduate programs in the biological sciences are up by
more than 25 percent since 1995
 

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The New Orleans Center for Science & Math is a high school program with an enrollment that is 95% African-American, 65% female and 70% high poverty.  There is no admission test and they accept a broad range of students who demonstrate interest in science and math. 93% of our graduating classes are accepted into colleges earning $400-500,000 in scholarship offers. For more information contact, Kris Pottharst, Executive Director of Advocates for Science & Math Education, Inc. E-mail:

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The National Medical Association's web site reports that the organization has a membership database of 25,000 - consisting of Black physicians in a wide range of specialties, such as primary care, pediatrics, radiology, pathology, aerospace medicine, academic medicine, administration specialties and medical and surgical subspecialties.

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The National Bar Association's web site reports that the organization represents a professional network of over 20,000 Black lawyers, judges, educators and law students.

Black Enterprise, June 1998, cites data from the Directory of Minority Judges of the United States, Second Edition, American Bar Association, Chicago, 1997, that indicates that there are
1,680 African American judges in the United States - or 2.8% of the 60,000 total judges nationwide.

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The National Society of Black Engineers' web site reports that the organization has 10,000 members, including 2000 professional engineers and scientists.

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The web site of the Association of Black Psychologists reports a membership of 1400 professionals and students who are in the forefront of addressing issues of a psychological nature that adversely affect the Black community.

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The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies reports that there were 8.868 Blacks holding political positions across the United States in 1998. While there was only 1 Black Senator and 39 Black Representatives in the United States Congress, and only 1 Black Governor in office in 1998, there were 154 Black State Senators and 425 Black State Representatives. 808 Blacks were members of County Governing Boards, 445 were Mayors, and 3468 were members of Municipal Governing Boards. 948 Blacks were Judges or other Judicial Officials, 50 were Police Chiefs, Sheriffs, or Marshals, and 2017 were members of University and College Boards or Local School Boards or were other Education Officials.  Check out the full report at www.jointctr.org.

African Americans on Currency, did you know it is a little known fact that five African Americans have had their signatures on currency. The four African American men s C. Napier. These men served as Registers of the Treasury. Until the series 1923 currency, the two signatures on almost all currency (except Fractional Currency and Demand Notes) were of the Treasurer and the Register. During this pewhose signatures appeared on the currency were Blanche K. Bruce, Judson W. Lyons, William T. Vernon and Jameriod four of the 17 registers were African American. The fifth African American whose signature appeared on currency was Azie Taylor Morton. Ms. Morton was the 36th Treasurer of the United States. She served from September 12, 1977, to January 20, 1981. There are no images of African-Americans printed on U.S. currency.

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EXHIBIT HONORS EARLY BLACK SCHOLARS OF THE CLASSICS
This past week the Detroit Public Library opened a photographic exhibit honoring "12 Black Classicists." The exhibit, which runs until the end of September, profiles a dozen African Americans who taught either Greek or Latin at the college or university level in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Among the black scholars featured are William Sanders Scarborough, the first black member of the Modern Language Association, Lewis Baxter Moore, the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and Wiley Lane, the first black professor of Greek at Howard University. The exhibit was created by Michele Valerie Ronnick, an associate professor in the department of Classics, Greek, and Latin at Wayne State University, with a grant from the James Loeb Classical Library Foundation at Harvard University. After the Detroit showing, the exhibit will travel to locations throughout the United States over the next two years.

From:
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education , September 11, 2003
 

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The Faces of Science:
African Americans in the Sciences

The Past: "What Has Happened Before?"

Profiled here are African American men and women who have contributed to the advancement of science and engineering. The accomplishments of the past and present can serve as pathfinders to present and future engineers and scientists. African American chemists, biologists, inventors, engineers, and mathematicians have contributed in both large and small ways that can be overlooked when chronicling the history of science. By describing the scientific history of selected African American men and women we can see how the efforts of individuals have advanced human understanding in the world around us.