Physics Today The Negro in physics—An interview with Herman Branson

Citation: Physics Today 19(9), 70 (1966); doi: 10.1063/1.3048474 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3048474 View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/19/9?ver=pdfcov Published by the AIP Publishing

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Reproduced with permission from Physics Today 19(9), 70 (1966). Copyright 1966, American Association of Physics Teachers.

posts, the State Department is offer-ing to cooperate widi foreign govern-ments to ensure the return of aca-demic visitors and will give assistancefor foreign recruiting teams in dieVS. In addition, American companiesin Peru are engaged in a pilot proj-ect to provide jobs for returning Peru-vian students and scientists.

Critics of our policies would havethe US do far more. They suggestthat we raise our entrance require-ments for all foreign students, limit

admissions of foreign undergraduatesand tailor their education to problemsdiey will meet at home. Gregory Hen-derson of the UN Institute for Train-ing and Research has urged that weuse our "great armory of resourcesoverseas to help the hard-pressed re-turnee whenever possible." Hendersonand Perkins would also have us de-velop a more "honest" immigrationpolicy. "A developing country," saysHenderson, "gives its passport strictlyfor a temporary purpose." But that

country loses control over its emigrestudent when our immigration servicegrants permanent status to the stu-dent. And for several countries thatsend large numbers of students, con-version to such status has become therule rather than-exception. "We mustclose up some of the more selfish loop-holes". . . says Perkins, "the all-too-easy solutions to our need for teach-ing assistants . . . and laboratory aides,offered in the name of scholarshipsand fellowships."

The Negro in physics—An interview with Herman Branson

As educator and researcher, HermanR. Branson has participated activelyin two of the most momentous revo-lutions of our time, modern physicsand civil rights. We talked with himrecently in his office at Howard Uni-

BRANSON

versity to find out his views on theprospect of the Negro in physics. \nsometimes sanguine, sometimes criticaltones, he told us that current effortswill produce many more Negro phy-sicists a few years hence, that severestaff problems are created by recruit-ment of his students by integration-conscious agencies and industries, andthat much more money and under-standing are needed to help the Negrostudent and his college.

Branson, a native of Virginia, didhis undergraduate work at the Uni-versity of Pittsburgh and VirginiaState College and received his PhDfrom the University of Cincinnati in1939. His teaching career began asan instructor in mathematics andphysics at Dillard University in NewOrleans, and since 1941 he has been

on the Howard faculty. Branson wasnamed professor of physics at Howardin 1942 and has headed the physicsdepartment for the last decade. Hehas been a senior fellow of the Na-tional Research Council at the Cali-fornia Institute of Technology and afaculty fellow of the National ScienceFoundation at the University of Ham-burg and with the French Commis-sariat A L'Energie Atomique atSaclay. His research interests have in-cluded mass spectroscopy, diffusion, ra-dioisotopes in medicine and informa-tion theory in biology and physics ofmolecules.

As a physics teacher at a predom-inantly Negro college, Branson hashad first-hand experience in trainingand guiding Negro scientists duringthe historic advances in Negro rightsover the past quarter century. He hasalso been active in proposing new leg-islation aimed at improving the con-dition of Negro colleges. In his mostrecent and strongest interest Bransonheads a precollege project to salvagetalent in youngsters from clisadvan-taged backgrounds and dius hopefullyto produce more Negro scientists. Weasked him:

• Why do we see so few Negroesat American Physical Society meetings?

"To begin with, very few depart-ments of physics at Negro institutionshave either the resources or programsthat would give a Negro physicistteaching in these schools any reasonfor coming to APS meetings. Then,of course, you must remember thatthe revolution in conscience, the civilrights struggle, is quite a recent thing,and until we provide Negroes withsuitable opportunity from the time

they are born, we are not going tohave as many Negro physicists as num-erically we should.

"But I think the situation is goingto improve greatly from now on. In-creasing numbers of Negroes are go-ing into the sciences. We might takeAmerica as an example in this respect.The US was a relatively old countrybefore it started producing many ofits own scientists. The same thingapplies here; it takes a long, long timebefore you can expect to get any re-turns."

• Is there anything in the homeenvironment of the Negro child thathandicaps his approach to science?

"Oh, definitely. Freud contendedthat the first three years of life arcthe crucial years and that everythingelse only modifies the established pat-tern. If you give a child very little in-tellectual content in his first threeyears, how can you expect him to de-velop into a physicist or biologist orany other kind of intellectualworker?"

• What difficulties does the Negroscientist starting out today encounter?

"If he has his PhD, perhaps hismost difficult problem is trying toavoid some of the high-paying indus-trial jobs offered to him. It's unfor-tunate that young Negro physicists, assoon as they get their degrees, aresought avidly by industries who wantto improve their public image. I wouldvery much prefer to have our youngpeople move more normally upongetting their PhD's and undergo aperiod of low income while they con-tinue their studies in post doctoralresearch, thus obtaining the real cre-dentials of a scientist."

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• Has the situation changed sinceyour own graduate days?

"Unquestionably so. I remembervividly how one of my professors urgedme to take a job with a major indus-trial company and how many stringshe pulled to get me the offer. Todaythat same company sends several re-cruiters to this campus often in a vainattempt to hire one or two students.The change is magnificent. Just afew years ago, a Negro couldn't geta job at a governmental or nonprofitlaboratory, but today they are brag-ging when they hire their first orsecond Negro. There are now moreopportunities than there are peopleto fill them."

• Does the allure of governmentaland industrial work create problemsof staff at Howard?

"It does create great shortages. Firstof all, our supply is small. And thenmost of this small supply goes intogovernmental and industrial positions.Of course, it's like everything else inAmerican education; if things are badin general, then they're always worsefor the predominantly Negro college."

• What professions do your stu-dents in the introductory courses enterlater?

"In the sciences the traditional op-portunities for Negroes have beenprimarily in fields like medicine anddentistry. These are socially impor-tant fields, where a young man can findprestige and a good income. But withthe opportunities in the natural sci-ences as they now are, I would like tosee more students in this area. I thinkthat we, at places like Howard, Fiskand Atlanta University, all ought tohave special programs both to iden-tify the talent in physics and to sal-vage it and develop it."

• What disciplines do your physicsmajors tend toward?

"Our population, of course, is ex-tremely small. We have a good mix-ture of theoreticians and experiment-alists. Now, there are not too manygoing into high-energy physics becausewe lack suitable equipment. We havesome students working in theoreticalnuclear physics, others doing experi-ments in magnetic properties at lowtemperature and things of this type.With 15 full-time faculty members, all

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with PhD's, we can offer a reasonablegraduate program."

# What would you say are the maindeficiencies of Negro colleges? Whycan't they compete in physics?

"It's a very simple matter. I justread that Stanford was lamenting be-cause it must raise some SI65 millionby 1970. Well, you must rememberthat SI65 million is an impossibleachievement over the same time forall 72 of the accredited predominantlyNegro colleges together. We knowhow to make a first-rate school inAmerica; it's primarily a question ofmoney. With a sympathetic board andmoney, you can bring in top-flightpeople from anywhere and build up aprogram. If a Negro college did haveproper resources and could design aprogram for young people of abilitywhose backgrounds may be weak, Idon't doubt at all that we could buildup first-rate programs in many places.And I think we're going to show this.We have organized a new groupcalled Institute for Services to Educa-tion (an offshoot of Educational Serv-ices Inc.), which is going to look atdie predominantly Xegro college ina forthright, constructive way. We arehopeful that in the next five years ordecade we will see first-rate programsdevelop with many more studentsmoving into the mainstream of phys-ics than you've seen in the past."

• Do you feel that the science com-munity is biased to any degree?

"I don't think so. On the otherhand, I don't believe they exactlyunderstand and appreciate the difficul-ties of a person who must move froma subculture to the general culture.But, in general, scientists (and espe-cially physicists) are among the mostliberal people to be found anywhere.NW this was not true some yearsago."

• Vo you find (hat your physicsstudents are just as active in civilri&ts as the humanities students?

"Perhaps embarrassingly so. ThePhysicists as a group, you know, arePretty vocal and outspoken. In thelast few years (quite to my surprise)several student leaders in our localcivil rights movements announcedthemselves as physics majors. We lostsome very bright people whom wethought would have contributed more

as physicists than as activists in civilrights."

• Is the government doing enoughto encourage Negro students in Sci-ence?

"I never feel the government isdoing enough, though it does a greatdeal. For example, I was just lookingat details of a government programwhere something like $5 million wasset aside for developing colleges. TheS3 million was appropriated for a bil-lion dollar need. If you are sincere,you have to spend money, and youhave to have a different orientationabout how to achieve your objectives.Like many people, I'm distressedabout how things are developing inthe areas of finding and developingtalent.

"Suppose you take a 17-year-oldfrom an indifferent intellectual andcultural background; what can youdo to bring him into 20th-centuryscience? It's not only a tough questionfor America but for the rest of theworld as well. We have to determinethe most effective way of overcominginitial handicaps. That is why I somuch favor our ESI programs thatare directed toward salvaging talentin the precollege youngster.

• What besides money is required?"We need people with vision. How

you get this I don't know. The peo-ple who I think have vision are notalways the people the governmentthinks have vision."

• Would you point to any govern-ment agencies as helping you accom-plish your objectives?

"I think the National Science Foun-dation has lots of people who under-stand this problem and are sympathe-tic towards it. There are also someindividuals at the Office of Educa-tion who understand this problemand especially at the Ford Founda-tion and Carnegie Corporation."

• In what -ways can the physics com-munity help?

"Private sentiments are more effec-tive than official statements. Perhapsthe best thing is to realize that thereis no racism in science and to try togive every person his opportunity todevelop. Certainly, we want completesympathy, understanding and everyother help that the community cansupply."—BH [j

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