History find uncovered

From: edequity@phoenix.edc.org
Date: Thu Feb 24 2000 - 11:45:34 EST

  • Next message: edequity@phoenix.edc.org: "Re: the hand we've been "dealt""

    In honor of Black history month AND women's history month, let me share
    this wonderful find with members of this list.

    The Honolulu Star Bulletin reported the virtually forgotten story of
    Alice Ball, a young women who discovered the chemical that became the
    first effective treatment for leperacy, a virus that plagued the islands
    for decades. The story appears in the Friday, February 18, 2000, edition
    that is online at http://starbulletin.com/2000/02/18/news/story3.html.
    (You may have to access this by going through starbulletin.com, clicking
    onto the 2/18/00 edition, then news, then Honor for the Healer.

    Alice was part of an African American family that moved to the islands in
    the early 1900s from Seattle. Her father was a lawyer and mother a
    photographer. J.P. Ball, Alice's grandfather, was a well-known
    photographer with studios in Europe as well as the United States.
    His work is included in a Smithsonian exhibition on black
    photographers that opened this month in Washington, D.C.

    I digress.

    This story is made all the more interesting because someone else either
    was given or took credit for Ball's discovery, and the newspaper article
    tells how a federal retiree named Stan Ali made it his mission to give
    Ball the credit she deserved.

    Sadly, Alice became ill and returned to Seattle where she died at age
    24. It's a good read, with a nice photo. Hope people who work with
    students can make use of this.
    ***************************************************************************
    Barbara Tavares
    University of Hawaii
    808/956-6194
    <btavares@hawaii.edu>



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