Ernest Everett Just

 " Even the most abstract truth needs to be expressed with simplicity and clearness and thus relate itself to everyday human experience. "

Ernest Everett Just was born on August 14, 1883 in Charleston, South Carolina.  His father and grandfather were dock builders, and his mother a school teacher.  Ernest Just's father died when he was only four, and his mother supported the family (Ernest had a younger brother and a sister) and encouraged Ernest to seek the best possible education.  Ernest attended South Carolina State College for three years, beginning when he was thirteen.  After that, he spent a summer working in New York City, saving his money.  The next fall he enrolled in Kimball Academy, a college prep school.  Studious and brilliant, Ernest completed the four-year course of study in only three years.  The only African American student at this institution, he became the editor of the school newspaper and was president of the debate team.

He was admitted to Dartmouth University. In his freshman year, he had the highest grades in Greek of all the freshmen.  Just earned various honors during his time at Dartmouth, and was the only person in the graduating class of 1907 to graduate magna cum laude.  He left Dartmouth with a degree in zoology, with special honors in history, botany, and honors in sociology.

Teaching opportunities for African Americans were severely limited in those days, as non-Black institutions would not consider hiring even the most accomplished Black scholars as professors.  Ernest Just met with the same roadblocks as other Black intellectuals of his time.  After graduating from Dartmouth, he accepted a teaching position at Howard University. He eventually became head of the department of Zoology at Howard, and the head of Physiology at Howard Medical School (he held this position the rest of his life).  At Howard, Just founded the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, and organized Howard’s first drama club. 

During the summer of 1909, Just began his graduate work in marine biology as a research assistant at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.  In 1916 he received a doctorate (magna cum laude, again) in experimental embryology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Just was married in 1912 to Ethel Highwarden, a teacher of German at Howard.  They had three children together.    

In 1915, Dr. Just became the first recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal, for his contributions to science and efforts to improve African American medical schools.

His research work at the Marine Biological Laboratory continued for twenty-two years, long after he earned his doctorate.  At the MBL, Dr. Just studied fertilization of marine mammal cells, and how various factors influenced cell development.  He became internationally known and respected.  Beginning in 1929, Dr. Just spent some time conducting research and lecturing in Europe at the invitation of European universities.  His first book, published in 1922, was entitled Basic Methods for Experiments on Eggs of Marine Mammals.  Subsequent books included The Biology of the Cell Surface, and Dr. Just was a co-author of General Cytology, along with several other eminent zoologists.

In 1939, Dr. Just was living in France when war broke out between France and Germany.  Foreign scientists were asked to leave, but Dr. Just was unable to return to the U.S. before the Nazis invaded and occupied Paris.  Dr. Just was held for a short time in a prisoner-of-war camp until he was allowed to return to the United States.  He soon fell ill from what turned out to be cancer, and died in 1941 in Washington, D.C., after a life dedicated to the pursuit of scientific knowledge. [] 
Susan Robinson
Republished 3/21.05 

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