Every day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development, in partnership with Education Post and Philly’s 7th Ward, will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer.
But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month and February is just the Blackest. All year are ongoing opportunities to learn and teach and the colossal impact Black educators have had on society.
Today, our featured Black educator is Betty Wright Harris.
Betty Wright Harris was born on July 29th, 1940, in Ouachita Parish, Monroe, Louisiana. She was one of 12 children. As a student, she was very bright. As a result, she received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Southern University in 1961. She would earn her master’s degree in chemistry from Atlanta University, currently Clark Atlanta University, in 1963.
She received her PhD in chemistry from the University of New Mexico in 1975 with a dissertation titled “Reactions of 2-aminopyridine with picryl halides.”
Dr Harris was a product of HBCUs; as previously mentioned she graduated from Southern University and Atlantic University. So, it was no shock that she would work at HBCUs teaching chemistry. She taught Chemistry and Mathematics at Mississippi Valley State University and Southern University. She did so for several years before earning her PhD. She also taught mathematics and chemistry at Colorado College.
While working on her doctoral studies, Dr. Harris accepted and offered to work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico where she would begin specializing in the study of explosives and nuclear weapons, developing expertise in a variety of areas, including the cleanup of hazardous material and environmental restoration. She worked for the laboratory for thirty years, where she invented the trinitrobenzene (TATB) spot test, which helped the US Military detect explosive substances on equipment and buildings.
After she retired in 2002, Dr. Harris worked for the US Department of Energy. She received numerous Awards for her work and was a member of multiple organizations including the American Chemical Society where she’s been a member for 50 years.
Dr Harris understood the importance of the axiom we reach for as we climb. She spent numerous years recruiting women of color and people of color to become scientists, establishing, for example, a summer program for promising high school students. She also created a chemistry badge for the Girl Scouts and participated in making a CD-ROM titled Telling Our Stories: Women in Science. Dr Harris is a prime example of what it means to give a hand up as they are reaching for the stars.
Betty Wright Harris; a member of the Black Educator Hall of Fame.
For more information on Betty Wright Harris, visit the following site.
