National Institute of Science

Last updated
National Institute of Science
Formation1943
Founder Hubert B. Crouch
Thomas Wyatt Turner
TypeScience organization
Headquarters Alabama State University
Website https://app.nisweb.org/

The National Institute of Science (NIS) is a non-profit professional organization with the goal of supporting science education and research at historically Black colleges and universities. The organization is one of the oldest professional groups for Black scientists, and was founded as the National Association of Science Teachers in Negro Colleges and Affiliated Institutions in 1943. It was renamed the National Institute of Science in 1944. [1]

Contents

History

Foundations

The initial idea for what would become the National Institute of Science began with Hubert Branch Crouch (1906–1980), a biology teacher at Kentucky State College (now Kentucky State University). In 1931, Crouch attended the third annual National Association for Research in Science Teaching meeting in 1931, and there was inspired to create a group to address various issues he saw within the science curriculums at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), such as intellectual isolation between institutions; lack of resources and funding; and heavy teaching loads for science faculty. [2] Crouch had previously founded another organization, the Council of Science Teachers, within the Kentucky Negro Educational Association (KNEA). [3]

At this point, except in the state of Texas, Black scholars were barred from attending the meetings of most professional science organizations. An exception was the Virginia Academy of Science, however, though it accepted Black scientists, the group did not allow for active participation by those members. [4] Local groups founded by HBCU faculty arose to meet the needs of Black scholars, including KNEA's Council of Science Teachers; the Physics Club in Richmond; the Atlanta Association for the Advancement of Science, affiliated with Morehouse College; the Virginia Conference of Science Teachers, affiliated with the Hampton Institute; and the Alabama Association of Science and Mathematics Teachers. [2]

Between 1936 and 1940, Crouch continued to develop his concept, and sought support from other academics such as H.J. Romm at the Tuskegee Institute and Thomas W. Turner at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University). In March 1940, Crouch presented his idea at the meeting of the Virginia Conference of College Science Teachers with a paper titled "Science Organization in Our Colleges," but it was not taken up at that time. Turner had notably founded the Virginia Conference of College Science Teachers and eventually became a crucial part of the foundation of the NIS. [1]

Over the 1942-1943 years, Turner took an academic leave to complete "A Study of Science Education in the Negro Colleges," which documented science education at various HBCUs in the South and would serve as a basis for the later outline of the NIS. Over the course of his own preparations, Crouch also visited 32 colleges to inquire about their interest in an organized science group during this period. [5] By 1943, multiple Black state educational organizations and teachers' associations across the country actively began looking to formally unify. Concurrently, wartime production at the onset of World War II led to an increased demand for organizing the capability of Black professional scientists and science education at HBCUs. [4]

Formal establishment

The group formalized on October 26, 1943, at the twenty-first meeting of the Conference of the Presidents of Negro Land-Grant Colleges in Chicago, Illinois. Crouch was joined by nine other representatives from eight other HBCUs to form the organization, including university presidents Rufus B. Atwood and Horace Mann Bond. [3] [1] The group was initially called the National Association of Science Teachers in Negro Colleges and Affiliated Institutions and was renamed the National Institute of Science in 1944. The group outlined its goals in four initial parts: [1]

  1. To stimulate interest in the field of science and to improve the teaching of science in the institution.
  2. To make science more functional in general instruction, experimentation, and in the service programs of the institution.
  3. To make institutional science more functional in the community.
  4. To unify organization and individual efforts in the sciences.

This first resolution was signed by the following scientists in attendance: Thomas W. Turner, Eugene D. Raines, Booker T. Griffith, Samuel M. Nabrit, Eldridge A. Miller, William W. Dowdy, James W. Hazzard, Hubert B. Crouch, and Herman R. Branson. The meeting ended with the appointment of officers, including Turner as president; Nabrit as vice president; Crouch as executive secretary; a group of regional directors including John McNeile Hunter; and an executive committee of Branson and John H. Birnie. [4]

First meetings

The first official meeting of the group was held May 12-13, 1944, at Fort Valley State College and Camp John Hope. The meeting was organized by regional director John McNeile Hunter, and had 36 members in attendance representing 21 colleges and two high schools. At this meeting, the group changed its name to the National Institute of Science. The second annual meeting was held from May 4-5, 1945, at Livingstone College, and saw an increased membership of 56 representing 24 colleges and four high schools. By its third meeting in 1946 at Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University (now Tennessee State University), membership had more than doubled. At the fourth meeting in 1947, the group drafted a Constitution outlining its long-term objectives and terms, and a newsletter was established, Transactions.

Merger with Beta Kappa Chi

At the group's seventh meeting at Central State University in 1950, the group passed a resolution to hold its meetings jointly with the Beta Kappa Chi Honors Society. Beta Kappa Chi had been founded in 1923 by a group of students at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, among them Hildrus Augustus Poindexter, with the goal of providing a central organization for Black scientists. The first combined meeting of the two groups was held April 16-19, 1952, at Prairie View A&M College.

In 1972, the NIS was incorporated by the state of Virginia as a non-profit organization, and in 1982, the group became an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1974, NIS and Beta Kappa Chi partnered with the first national meeting of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers in New Orleans, Louisiana. [6]

Activities

The NIS holds its annual meeting jointly with Beta Kappa Chi. [7]

Starting in 1984 at the 41st Joint Annual Meeting of the NIS and Beta Kappa Chi in Atlanta, Georgia, the NIS has hosted an annual Memorial Lecture, which features a tribute to scientific predecessors. Other annual activities include workshops, town hall meetings, graduate and undergraduate poster sessions, and the NIS Distinguished lecture. [8]

NIS officers are divided into the positions of president, vice president, executive secretary, treasurer, and editor of the Transactions newsletter. There are also five regional directors and a primary and regional student officers. [9]

Presidents

Notable members

Legacy

Various universities have honored the founders of NIS. The Hubert B. Crouch Hall at Tennessee State University is named for Hubert B. Crouch. [16] In 1978, Hampton University named Turner Hall for Thomas Wyatt Turner. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morehouse College</span> Private college in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.

Morehouse College is a private historically Black men's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. Anchored by its main campus of 61 acres (25 ha) near downtown Atlanta, the college has a variety of residential dorms and academic buildings east of Ashview Heights. Along with Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and the Morehouse School of Medicine, the college is a member of the Atlanta University Center consortium. Founded by William Jefferson White in 1867 in response to the liberation of enslaved African-Americans following the American Civil War, Morehouse adopted a seminary university model and stressed religious instruction in the Baptist tradition. Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, the college experienced rapid, albeit financially unstable, institutional growth by establishing a liberal arts curriculum. The three-decade tenure of Benjamin Mays during the mid-20th century led to strengthened finances, an enrollment boom, and increased academic competitiveness. The college has played a key role in the development of the civil rights movement and racial equality in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spelman College</span> Private, historically Black womens college in Atlanta, Georgia, US

Spelman College is a private, historically Black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman received its collegiate charter in 1924, making it America's second oldest private historically Black liberal arts college for women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard University</span> Historically black university in Washington, D.C., US

Howard University is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C., located in the Shaw neighborhood. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowie State University</span> Historically black university in Maryland, United States

Bowie State University is a public historically black university in Prince George's County, Maryland, north of Bowie. It is part of the University System of Maryland. Founded in 1865, Bowie State is Maryland's oldest historically black university and one of the ten oldest in the country. Bowie State is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia State University</span> College in Virginia, United States

Virginia State University is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. Founded on March 6, 1882, Virginia State developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of higher learning for Black Americans. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)</span> University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, US

Lincoln University (LU) is a public state-related historically black university (HBCU) near Oxford, Pennsylvania. Founded as the private Ashmun Institute in 1854, it has been a public institution since 1972 and is the second HBCU in the state, after Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. Lincoln is also recognized as the first college-degree granting HBCU in the country. Its main campus is located on 422 acres near the town of Oxford in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. The university has a second location in the University City area of Philadelphia. Lincoln University provides undergraduate and graduate coursework to approximately 2,000 students. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mississippi Valley State University</span> Public university in Mississippi, US

Mississippi Valley State University is a public historically black university in Mississippi Valley State, Mississippi, adjacent to Itta Bena, Mississippi. MVSU is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honor society</span> Rank organization that recognizes excellence among peers

In the United States, an honor society is a rank organization that recognizes excellence among peers. Numerous societies recognize various fields and circumstances. The Order of the Arrow, for example, is the National Honor Society of the Boy Scouts of America. Chiefly, the term refers to scholastic honor societies, those that recognize students who excel academically or as leaders among their peers, often within a specific academic discipline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Panhellenic Conference</span> Organization encompassing 26 sororities in the US and Canada

The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is an umbrella organization for 26 (inter)national women's sororities throughout the United States and Canada. Each member group is autonomous as a social, Greek-letter society of college women and alumnae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phi Delta Chi</span> Fraternity

Phi Delta Chi is a coed. professional fraternity, founded on 2 November 1883 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan by eleven men, under the sponsorship of Dean Albert B. Prescott. The fraternity was formed to advance the science of pharmacy and its allied interests, and to foster and promote a fraternal spirit among its brothers, now both male and female.

Professional fraternities, in the North American fraternity system, are organizations whose primary purpose is to promote the interests of a particular profession and whose membership is restricted to students in that particular field of professional education or study. This may be contrasted with service fraternities and sororities, whose primary purpose is community service, and social fraternities and sororities, whose primary purposes are generally aimed towards some other aspect, such as the development of character, friendship, leadership, or literary ability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen University</span> Historically black university in South Carolina, U.S.

Allen University is a private historically black university in Columbia, South Carolina. It has more than 600 students and still serves a predominantly Black constituency. The campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Allen University Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lambda Pi Chi</span> Latina Sorority

Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Incorporated (ΛΠΧ) is a Latina-based, but not Latina-exclusive Greek letter intercollegiate sorority founded on April 16, 1988, at Cornell University by five women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas College</span> College in Tyler, Texas, US

Texas College is a private, historically black Christian Methodist Episcopal college in Tyler, Texas. It is affiliated with the United Negro College Fund. It was founded in 1894 by a group of ministers affiliated with the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, a predominantly black denomination which was at the time known as the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. They planned to provide for education of African-American students, who were excluded from the segregated university system of Texas. They planned a full literary, scientific and classical education for theology, normal training of lower school teachers, music, commercial and industrial training, and agricultural and mechanical sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin F. Hubert</span>

Benjamin Franklin Hubert served as president of Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth and Georgia State College from 1926 until 1947.

The North American fraternity and sorority system began with students who wanted to meet secretly, usually for discussions and debates not thought appropriate by the faculty of their schools. Today they are used as social, professional, and honorary groups that promote varied combinations of community service, leadership, and academic achievement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel M. Nabrit</span> American marine biologist (1905–2003)

Samuel Milton Nabrit was an American marine biologist. He was the first African American to be awarded a doctoral degree from Brown University, the first Morehouse College graduate to earn a Ph.D. and the first African American appointed to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He was also the first African American to serve on the Brown University Board of Trustees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chi Eta Phi</span>

Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Inc. (ΧΗΦ) is an international, nonprofit, professional service organization for registered professional nurses and student nurses, representing many cultures and diverse ethnic backgrounds. The Sorority has more than 8000 members located throughout the United States, the District of Columbia, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Monrovia, Liberia. Dr. Sarah Killian, DNP, RN is the current National President.

John McNeile Hunter was an American physicist and chemist, and the third African American person to receive a PhD in physics in the United States. He spent the entirety of his career as a professor of physics at the Virginia State College, a historically Black college in Petersburg, Virginia, where he also established and served as the first chair of the college's physics department. Virginia State College's physics program was one of the first at a historically Black college in the country. Hunter's research was focused on thermionics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubert B. Crouch</span> American zoologist (1906–1980)

Hubert Branch Crouch (1906–1980) was an American zoologist and parasitologist. His efforts led to the founding of the National Institute of Science, an organization that supports research and science education at historically Black colleges and universities. He was a professor at Tennessee State University for 28 years, serving as the dean of the graduate school, heading the biology department, and directing the science division. He taught biology at Kentucky State College. He earned his PhD in parasitology from the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 King, William M. “Hubert Branch Crouch and the Origins of the National Institute of Science.” The Journal of Negro History 79, no. 1 (1994): 18–33. https://doi.org/10.2307/2717664.
  2. 1 2 Mjagkij, Nina (2003-12-16). Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-135-58123-7.
  3. 1 2 "Crouch, Hubert Branch · Notable Kentucky African Americans Database". nkaa.uky.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  4. 1 2 3 Shelbert Smith, "A History: The National Institute of Science (1943-1993)," Transactions:  National Institute of Science , vol. 50 (Spring 2014), pp. 16-31.
  5. ↑ "Stories of African-American STEM Societies: Part 1 — The First Wave (1895 to 1947)". Absolutely Maybe. 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  6. ↑ "50 years of NOBCChE". cen.acs.org. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  7. ↑ "2022 Joint Annual Meeting". www.betakappachi.org. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  8. 1 2 "National Institute of Science | History". app.nisweb.org. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  9. ↑ "officials | National Institute of Science". app.nisweb.org. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  10. ↑ Titcomb, Caldwell. “The Earliest Ph.D. Awards to Blacks in the Natural Sciences.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 15 (1997): 92–99. https://doi.org/10.2307/2962707.
  11. ↑ American Men of Science: A Biographical Directory. Bowker. 1949. p. 679.
  12. ↑ "National Institute of Science Officers" Transactions:  National Institute of Science , vol. 49 (Spring 2013), pp. 6.
  13. ↑ "National Institute of Science Officers" Transactions:  National Institute of Science , vol. 54 (Spring 2018), pp. 7.
  14. ↑ "Etta Zuber Falconer | Mathematical Association of America". www.maa.org. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  15. ↑ Brown, Jeannette E. (Jeannette Elizabeth), 1934- (2012). African American women chemists. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-990961-2. OCLC 761692608.
  16. ↑ "THE HUBERT B". library3.tnstate.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  17. ↑ "Turner, Thomas Wyatt | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.