Ernest Everett Just

Ernest Everett Just was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on the fourteenth of August 1883, one of several children of Charles Just and Mary Matthews Just. His father and grandfather, both builders, died when he was still a small boy, and it was his mother, a teacher, who set his path toward learning. He journeyed north for his schooling, and in 1907 took his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College, graduating magna cum laude with special honors in zoology.

He came to Howard University in 1907, but not at first as a scientist: he was engaged as an instructor of English and rhetoric. Only around 1909 and 1910 did he move onto the science faculty, teaching biology and zoology. In 1910 he was appointed to lead a newly formed biology department, and in 1912 he became head of the Department of Zoology, a post he would hold until his death. In 1916 he earned his doctorate in zoology from the University of Chicago, among the first African Americans to attain such a degree.

Just became the principal American researcher in the embryology of marine invertebrates. Working summer after summer at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, he studied fertilization, cell division, and parthenogenesis, insisting that living cells be observed whole and under natural conditions rather than dismantled. His work illuminated the fundamental role of the cell surface in the development of the organism.

In 1915 the NAACP named him the first recipient of its Spingarn Medal, honoring the excellence of his science. A man who read the egg with the patience of an artist, Ernest Everett Just enlarged what the world knew of the very beginnings of life, and his name endures with honor.