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Black Kos, Week In Review [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-06-27

Commentary: Black Scientists, Explorers, and Inventors

By dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor Herman Russell Branson (August 14, 1914 – June 7, 1995) was an African American physicist, best known for his research on the alpha helix protein structure. He was also the president of two colleges.

Branson received his B.S. from Virginia State College in 1936, and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cincinnati, under the direction of Boris Padowski, in 1939. After a stint at Dillard University, he joined Howard University in 1941 as an assistant professor of physics and chemistry. He remained at Howard for 27 years, achieving increasingly important positions, eventually becoming head of the physics department, director of a program in experimental science and mathematics, and working on the Office of Naval Research and Atomic Energy Commission Projects in Physics at Howard University. In 1948, Branson took a leave and spent time at the California Institute of Technology, in the laboratory of the chemist Linus Pauling. There he was assigned work on the structure of proteins, specifically to use his mathematical abilities to determine possible helical structures that would fit both the available x-ray crystallography data and a set of chemical restrictions outlined by Pauling. After some months of work, Branson handed in a report narrowing the possible structures to two helixes, a tighter coil Pauling termed "alpha," and a looser helix called "gamma." Branson then returned to Howard to work on other projects. Branson went on to a significant career, eventually serving as president of Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, from 1968–1970, and then president of Lincoln University until his retirement in 1985. He was active in increasing federal funding for higher education, and helped found the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education in 1969.[3] In 1984 Branson wrote Pauling biographers Victor and Mildred Goertzel implying that his contribution to the alpha helix had been greater than the final paper indicated. “I took my work to Pauling who told me that he thought they [the proposed alpha and gamma helixes] were too tight, that he thought that a protein molecule should have a much larger radius so that water molecules could fit down inside and cause the protein to swell,” he wrote. “I went back and worked unsuccessfully to find such a structure.” When he received Pauling’s note with the draft manuscript, Branson wrote, “I interpreted this letter as establishing that the alpha and gamma in my paper were correct and that the subsequent work done was cleaning up or verifying. The differences were nil. Branson was co-inventor of the alpha helix and perhaps deserved a share of the Nobel prize. As the story goes somehow Linus Pauling got Branson excluded from the prize [new Yorker mag]....Read More

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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor

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They want to use someone as the target. And right now, I'm their target," McIver told theGrio after pleading not guilty to a three-count indictment in New Jersey that carries a jail sentence of up to 17 years. The Grio: Facing 17 years in prison, Rep. McIver says Trump’s ‘woke’ attack on her reveals deeper bias: ‘I’m their target’

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U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., is undeterred after pleading not guilty in a federal prosecution brought by the Trump administration.

”The facts are on my side…I have no doubt that I will be victorious,” McIver told theGrio shortly after leaving a New Jersey courthouse where she was arraigned for her three-count indictment, for which she is accused of “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers.”

McIver faces up to 17 years in prison for a May altercation outside of a Newark ICE detention facility, where she and two other members of Congress were joined by Mayor Ras Baraka for an oversight visit to review the conditions of undocumented individuals being detained.

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Police clashed with people marching in Nairobi and other areas to honour those killed in protests last year. The Guardian: At least 16 people killed and 400 injured in Kenyan protests

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At least 16 people have been killed and 400 injured in Kenya as a nationwide demonstration to honour those killed during last year’s anti-government protests turned chaotic, with police clashing with protesters in different parts of the country.

Amnesty International Kenya’s executive director, Irũngũ Houghton, told Reuters the death toll had been verified by the government-funded Kenya national commission on human rights. “Most were killed by police,” he said.

A joint statement from groups supporting the protests said 83 people were seriously injured and at least eight people were being treated for gunshot wounds.

“We pray for our nation, dialogue and a way forward from the political impasse facing Kenya,” said the statement from the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), the Police Reforms Working Group and the Kenya Medical Association.

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Celebrations break out as people from both countries greet each other for the first time in five years. BBC: Joyful Ethiopians and Eritreans embrace at rare border reopening

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There have been celebrations at the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea as communities from the frontier villages came together for the first time in five years. Separated by the closed border since the outbreak of the 2020 conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, and subsequent political tensions, Sunday's coming together was a symbolic moment of peace and reconciliation. The reunion of families and friends took place in the Ethiopian town of Zalambessa in the presence of village elders and religious leaders. The move to re-open a section of the border was organized by local activists and community figures without the official backing of the authorities on either side.

But those behind it indicated that they had the blessing from officials in Tigray and Eritrea. Many at the celebration described it as an emotional and long-overdue gathering. For five years, relatives and friends whose communities straddled the international boundary had not been able to see each other across the militarized border. Many in Zalambessa and the nearby villages had suffered economic hardship and social fragmentation during the two-year war in Tigray that ended in November 2022. People had been forced to flee their homes, with more than 55,000 people now living in makeshift shelters in Adigrat, 30km (19 miles) south of Zalambessa, relying on relatives for survival.

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WELCOME TO THE FRIDAY PORCH

IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF

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