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Black Kos, Week In Review - The Co-developer of nuclear power plants [1]
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Date: 2025-03-07
Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Jr. (November 27, 1923 – May 1, 2011) was an African American nuclear scientist, mechanical engineer and mathematician, who gained first fame on entering the University of Chicago at age 13, becoming its youngest ever student. His intelligence led to him being referred to as a "negro genius" in the media. Jesse Wilkins and Eugene Wigner co-developed the Wigner-Wilkins approach for estimating the distribution of neutron energies within nuclear reactors, which is the basis for how all nuclear reactors are designed. Wilkins later went on to become the President of the American Nuclear Society in 1974. But despite Wilkins’ stature and fame during his career, he was not unaffected by the prevalent racism that existed for much of his life. Wilkins had a widely varied career, spanning seven decades and including significant contributions to pure and applied mathematics, civil and nuclear engineering, and optics. As part of a widely varied and notable career, Wilkins contributed to the Manhattan Project during the Second World War. He also gained fame working in and conducting nuclear physics research in both academia and industry. Wilkins wrote numerous scientific papers, served in various important posts, earned several significant awards and helped recruit minority students into the sciences. His career spanned seven decades and included significant contributions to pure and applied mathematics, civil and nuclear engineering, and optics. During his life he was often the target of racism, but persevered and helped recruit minority students into the sciences. In 1940 Wilkins completed his B.SC. in mathematics at age 17, then his M.SC. at age 18, and finally went on to complete a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1942 at age 19. In order to improve his rapport with the nuclear engineers reporting to him, Wilkins later received both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in mechanical engineering from New York University in 1957 and 1960, thus earning five science degrees during his life.
In 1944 he returned to the University of Chicago where he served first as an associate mathematical physicist and then as a physicist in its Metallurgical Laboratory, as part of the Manhattan Project. Working under the direction of Arthur Holly Compton and Enrico Fermi, Wilkins researched the extraction of fissionable nuclear materials, but was not told of the research group's ultimate goal until after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Wilkins was the co-discoverer or discoverer of a number of phenomena in physics such as the Wilkins Effect, plus the Wigner-Wilkins and Wilkins Spectra. When Wilkins's team was about to be transferred to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (known at the time as site "X"), due to the Jim Crow laws of the Southern United States, Wilkins would have been prevented from working there. When Edward Teller, who later became the famed “father of the hydrogen bomb” was informed about this, he wrote a letter on September 18, 1944 to Harold Urey (who was the director of war research at Columbia at the time) of Wilkins's abilities, informing him about the problem of Wilkins's race, and recommending his services for a new position. As Teller explained: Knowing that men of high qualifications are scarce these days, I thought that it might be useful that I suggest a capable person for this job. Mr. Wilkins in Wigner's group at the Metallurgical Laboratory has been doing, according to Wigner, excellent work. He is a colored man and since Wigner's group is moving to "X" it is not possible for him to continue work with that group. I think that it might be a good idea to secure his services for our work. Read more -->
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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In 2020, the two-block stretch of 16th Street NW north of the White House was designated as Black Lives Matter Plaza after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked protests nationwide, including in the District. NBC: DC mayor to remove Black Lives Matter Plaza amid pressure from White House
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A spokesperson for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser confirmed to NBC Washington that Bowser will remove Black Lives Matter Plaza and the "Black Lives Matter" ground mural will be painted over. There's no timeline yet for the changes, but the street art will be replaced with a design created by D.C. schoolchildren.
Bowser said she made the decision several days ago. When pressed about why, she said it was fair to say the White House didn’t like it.
In 2020, the two-block stretch of 16th Street NW north of the White House was designated as Black Lives Matter Plaza after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked protests nationwide, including in the District.
Bowser unveiled the ground mural on June 5 of that year. It was paved over about a year later, but the mural was replaced, and Bowser announced the new mural would be a permanent installation in October 2021.
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Turner’s death came just months after he won Texas’ 18th Congressional District race. He served eight years as Houston’s mayor after 27 years in the Texas House of Representatives. Houston Public Media: Longtime Houston Mayor and Congressman Sylvester Turner dies at age 70
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U.S. Congressman and longtime Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has died from enduring health complications. He was 70.
Turner died in his Washington D.C. home at 5:45 a.m. after attending President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, his family said in a statement.
Turner’s death came just months after he won Texas' 18th Congressional District race. He stood as a pillar in the history of the state’s largest municipality, serving eight years as Houston’s mayor after 27 years in the Texas House of Representatives. He represented Texas District 139 from 1989 until 2016.
“We’ve lost an outstanding public official,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said Wednesday at City Hall. “Experience matters folks. No one will be able to step into Sylvester’s shoes and carry on his duties because there’s only one Sylvester Turner.”
A native Houstonian, Turner was born in 1954 and grew up in Acres Homes, a predominantly Black suburb.
He graduated as valedictorian from Klein High School in 1973 and earned a political science degree from the University of Houston in 1977. He attended Harvard Law School and started a career as an attorney specializing in corporate and commercial law.
In the final stretch of his mayoral tenure in 2022, Turner announced he had been quietly battling bone cancer. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma after doctors discovered a tumor on his jaw during a dental visit when he complained of a toothache.
Turner declared himself cancer free at the end of 2022.
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Speaking Truth to power NewsOne: US Rep. Al Green Has Always Been A Gangsta
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By now you’ve seen the video of the lone, defiant, Black man holding his walking stick in the direction of President Trump during his joint session of Congress address. It’s a powerful image shared around social media showing Texas Rep. Al Green standing up for all who are set to be victims of cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
It was a moment that defined the long-winded speech of lies a glitch in the Republican matrix in which someone from the Democratic party actually stood and said something. Before the 77-year-old congressman was escorted out of the Capitol, he took a moment to turn his attention to the Republican side of the aisle to mutter “Shame on you.”
And just like that, Green was gone, but the moment became the talk of the presidential address to Congress. Because Al Green believes, like most of us who voted for anything other than a fascist regime, that this presidency is a sham and deserves the same respect one would give a scammer.
And here’s the thing: Al Green has been a gangsta. If you were to look up “truth to power” it would be a photo of Al Green. And honestly, the Democratic party should be embarrassed. Green is in the twilight of his career and shouldn’t have to stand with a cane to yell at the president; another younger Democrat could’ve done that, but some didn’t show up and others were busy posting dance challenges and social media videos.
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The series is a modern-day reimagining of Judy Blume’s 1975 book “Forever…” centering two Black teenagers set in Los Angeles in 2018. The Grio: Netflix sets premiere date for teen rom-com series from Mara Brock Akil, ‘Forever’
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Netflix has set a May 8 date for the premiere of “Forever,” a Black teen-centered rom-com series created, executive produced, and written by Mara Brock Akil. The series is a modern-day reimagining of Judy Blume’s 1975 book, “Forever…,” a title that has been the subject of constant scrutiny over the years due to its themes of teenage intimacy. According to the American Library Association, Judy Blume’s novel is number 7 on their list of the “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990 to 1999.”
The series will update and modernize the original plot. For instance, “Forever,” the series, is set in Los Angeles in 2018, whereas the book was set in New Jersey, presumably in 1975, where the main characters, Michael Wagner and Katherine Danzinger, were white teenagers.
Showrunner and executive producer Brock Akil spoke with Netflix about why Los Angeles was chosen as the backdrop for the series adaptation.
“What better metaphor for this love story than what LA represents, for not only me, but for a lot of people. You’re looking for a place to follow your dreams, and love is a part of that,” said Brock Akil. Brock Akil is known for creating other romantic comedies that became part of the Black cultural conversation about on-screen love in UPN’s “Girlfriends” and BET’s “Being Mary Jane.”
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A former lawyer who revived her family’s crumbling estate into a thriving Black-owned agricultural and ecotourism hub wants more Black Americans to experience Grenada’s history and culture. The Grio: From plantation to Black-owned legacy: How Shadel Nyack Compton transformed Grenada’s Belmont Estate into a must-visit destination
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When Shadel Compton Nyack left her native country of Grenada for Howard University decades ago, her life plan was pretty clearly mapped out– graduate college from the storied HBCU, go on to law school, and pursue a career as an attorney.
But life has a funny way of shaking up the best-laid plans.
“I really… was not an entrepreneur at heart, was not a farmer, and not an agronomist,” Compton Nyack told theGrio in an interview on the island. “I went to law school. I did not anticipate that I would be doing this business, that I would have left my life in the U.S. to come back and work on a farm to try to transform this farm.” She’d grown up on a farm named Belmont Estate that had a dark past– it formerly served as a profitable plantation on the island of Grenada — until her Indo-Grenadan ancestors bought it back. Despite their positive intention, through old age they’d let the grounds fall into disrepair. Compton Nyack saw an opportunity. “I had the passion and knew that I wanted to preserve this business that was so important in Grenada for many decades. And that provided economic stability, that provided jobs.”
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His Royal Highness King Godwin Bebe Okpabi has carried bottles of water drawn from the wells of his homeland in the Niger delta to the high court in London.
It stinks. “This is the water that Shell has left for my people,” said the ruler of the Ogale community in Ogoniland, Nigeria. “This is poison, and they are spending millions of dollars to pay the best lawyers in the world so that they will not clean my land.”
For the past three and a half weeks, lawyers for Shell have argued at the high court that their client cannot be held responsible for an environmental catastrophe in Ogale, which has suffered from decades of spills and pollution from oil extraction.
For most of that time, Okpabi was there too, watching proceedings in court 63, a nondescript room lined with empty bookcases. Between hearings, he met journalists and activists to spread word of the health crisis his people face.
“A people have been completely destroyed: people’s way of life destroyed; people’s only drinking water, which is the underground water aquifer, has been poisoned; people’s farmland has been completely poisoned; people’s streams that they use [for] their normal livelihood have been completely destroyed,” he said.
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