ROGER ARLINER YOUNG | BLACK HISTORY MONTH | ADRIEL

Roger Arliner Young was a remarkable woman who was the First African-American woman to acquire an advanced degree in zoology because, due to the years of impenetrable research and teaching, with the encumbrance of caring for her invalid mother. She had so much grit and perseverance.

Young grew up in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. She went to Howard University in 1916. She took her first science course in 1921, under Ernest Everett Just, an eminent, black biologist, and he was also the head of the zoology department at Howard. Even though her grades were deficient, Just recognised some potential and started guiding Young. In 1923, she had graduated with a bachelor’s degree.

She had a sincere relationship with Just, which helped her to improve her skills, and he kept on working with her. He helped Young to gain funding to attend graduate school.

She entered the University part-time and her grades ameliorated excessively. She was requested to become a member of Sigma XI, which wasn’t usually given to a master’s student. In addition, she began publicizing her research. In September 1924, her first article “ On the Excretory Apparatus in Paramecium” became available in Science in September 1924.  She received her master’s degree in 1926.

Young was invited to work with Just during the summers at Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, commencing in 1927. She aided him with research on the fertilization process in marine organisms. Alongside that, she worked on the procedures of hydration and dehydration in living cells. She became more proficient and was called a “real genius in zoology” by Just.

She had specified vaguely an indication of stress, however she couldn’t believe that she failed to qualify. It was devastating for her, and she also had to care for her mother, but now she didn’t have any money. She left and didn’t tell anyone where she was headed and Lillie was very much disturbed about this and so wrote to the president of Howard about her mental health. She did eventually return to Howard to teach and continued working at Woods Hole in the summers, but her relationship with Just wasn’t as good as it used to be.

Unfortunately, there had been rumours about Just and Young having romance and so Just had to ease her out of the position she currently had. Numerous charges were exchanged. They were  confronted  in 1935, and in 1936 she was fired, seemingly for missing classes and mistreating lab equipment.

However, she took her firing as an opportunity. In June 1937, she went to the University of Pennsylvania to begin a doctorate under L. V. Heilbrunn, who had become her friend at Woods Hole and gave her the aiding she needed to continue. She earned her Ph.D. in 1940.

She took a subordinate director at the North Carolina College for Negroes in Raleigh. Sadly, her mental health failed again. She laboured ephemeral contracts in Texas and at Jackson State College in Mississippi. While in Mississippi in the late 1950s, she was hospitalized at the State Mental Asylum. She was released from the hospital in 1962 and she went to Southern University in New Orleans. She died, impoverished and solitary, on November 9, 1964