The day before Walter Massey turned 30, in 1968, the Rev.
Dr. Massey, then a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, watched the funeral on television, in tears, from his apartment in Chicago.
At the time, Dr. Massey was a rising star in the study of theoretical condensed matter, how liquids and solids behave.
But Dr. Massey was also a Black man born and raised in the Jim Crow South.
Dr. Massey thrust himself into supporting Black students at a time when colleges around the country were adjusting to court-ordered integration.
Persons:
Walter Massey, Martin Luther King Jr, Massey, Lev Landau, Jim Crow, “, ”, “ I’d, King’s
Organizations:
National Laboratory, National Society of Black Physicists
Locations:
Memphis, Chicago, America, Argonne, I’d