I love mathematician Dr. William Claytor. From Norfolk, VA (757 all day), he was DENIED a spot at IAS because Princeton was doing a racism and wouldn't let a Black man join. When IAS came back begging in '39, he said "naw I'm good." Give me his book! Or the book on IAS as both haven and gatekeeper.
The Bambergers hired with "no regard whatever to accidents of race, creed, or sex."
For a while they tried working out of Princeton University, but the uni wouldn't let them hire Black people. So they left and built a new building out in the suburbs.
So, woke DEI stuff that fascists still hate!
Seriously, give me a history of IAS in the 30s and 40s that wrestles with doing science while simultaneously providing a haven to Jewish scholars while barring Black ones that eventually led to IAS making a more clean break from Princeton so they could hire whoever they wanted. Narrative nonfiction!
That's a book begging to be written.
HE TAUGHT KATHERINE JOHNSON (West Virginia State College for those who don't know is an hbcu)
mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/...
That first scene alone is eventual Oscar bait. Swelling strings, a series of students clearly having light bulbs go on in their heads, Clayton and (Coleman) having a proof-off on the blackboard . . .
May 14, 2025 15:20I just want to give someone my money... if I was a historian, I would already be pitching agents
