Carolyn Parker

Carolyn Beatrice Parker (November 18, 1917 – March 17, 1966) was a teacher and research physicist who contributed to the Dayton Project from 1943 to 1947, an initiative within the Manhattan Project focused on polonium development. Parker was among the few African American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project.

Beginning her academic career, Parker taught at public schools in Florida after obtaining her undergraduate degree at Fisk University. Following her work on the Dayton project, she pursued an academic career, taking on the role of assistant professor in physics at Fisk University. Parker earned two master's degrees, one in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1941 and one in physics from MIT in 1951. Parker went on to pursue a doctorate in physics at MIT but was derailed by leukemia, an occupational risk for workers on the Dayton Project. She died from leukemia at the age of 48.

Parker is celebrated as the first African-American known to have obtained a postgraduate degree in physics. The Carolyn Beatrice Parker Elementary School and Park in Gainesville were renamed in her honor.

Early life
Carolyn Beatrice Parker was born in Gainesville, Florida, on November 18, 1917. Her father, Julius A. Parker, known for being one of the first black doctors in the Alachua County, was a successful physician and pharmacist who graduated from Meharry Medical College, the first medical school in the South for African-Americans. Her mother, Della Ella Murrell Parker, was an elementary school teacher

Parker was the eldest of seven children, one that died and age 9, and five of which obtained advanced degrees. Carolyn's sister, Mary Parker Miller obtained a Master of Science in mathematics from New York University in 1975; Juanita Parker Wynter obtained a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and chemistry, and a Master of Science from New York University; Julie Leslie Parker obtained a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Fisk University and a master's degree in medical technology from Meharry Medical College; and Julius Parker Jr obtained a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Michigan; Martha Parker, studied social sciences, gaining a master's degree from Temple University. Carolyn Parker's maternal first cousin Joan Murrell Owens, a marine biologist, was one of the first African-American women to receive a PhD in geology.

Parker attended segregated public schools in Tampa, Florida, and graduated from Middleton High School in 1933.

Education
Parker was inspired to pursue physics at Fisk University where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938. Following her undergraduate study, she obtained a Master of Science in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1941. She undertook further studies from 1946 to 1947 at Ohio State University, towards the end of time of her time on the Dayton Project. In 1951, Parker enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduated with a Master of Science in physics in 1953 with a Master's thesis titled "Range distribution of 122 Mev (pi⁺) and (pi⁻) mesons in brass".

While on course to obtaining a Phd at MIT, Parker developed multiple sclerosis and leukemia, potentially from exposure to radiation while working on the Dayton Project. Her condition left her unable to defend her dissertation and so could not obtain her PhD in physics. However, she still remains the first African-American woman known to have gained a postgraduate degree in physics.

Career
Following her undergraduate degree in physics from Fisk University, Parker took on several teaching jobs in order to pay for the furthering of her education between 1938 and 1942. She took a year long teaching position in public schools in Rochelle, Florida, from 1938 to 1939. She then moved to teach at Lincoln High School in Gainesville, Florida, from 1939 to 1940, and in Newport News, Virginia, from 1941 to 1942. She was an instructor in physics and mathematics at Bluefield State College a historically black college in West Virginia that played a crucial role in the advancement of black education and culture, from 1942 to 1943.

During the second world war, Parker was recruited on account of her mathematical and physical knowledge and skills. Wishing to carry out her patriotic duty, she worked as a research physicist on the Dayton Project at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio from 1943 to 1947,.

The Dayton Project was part of the Manhattan Project to develop atomic weapons in World War II, and continuing into the Cold War. Parker's team was tasked with separating the radioactive element polonium to be used as the initiator for the atomic bombs. Parker's sister, Juanita Parker Wynter, reported in an interview that her work there was "so secret she couldn't discuss it, even with us, her family".

In 1947, after her work in Dayton, Ohio, Parker became an assistant professor of physics at Fisk University in Tennessee. During her masters coursework in physics in 1952, she worked as a physicist in the geophysics research division at the Air Force Cambridge Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a prestigious research laboratory created after the M.I.T. Radiation Laboratory and the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory closed post World War II.

Parker was a member of the Institute of Radio Engineers, the American Physical Society, Sigma Upsilon Pi, and Delta Sigma Theta.

Personal life
Although the Parker family has always been of the Methodist Church, Carolyn Parker converted to catholicism late in her life and was devoted to the faith until her death.

She never married and had no children.

Parker died in Gainesville, Florida, on March 17, 1966, at the age of 48 from leukemia.

Legacy
For more than 50 years, the name, professional journey and accomplishments of Carolyn Beatrice Parker remained shelved away from public discussion. Much of this can be attributed to the extensive secrecy surrounding her involvement with the Dayton project. However, the impact of racial and gender inequalities is evident.

In 2020, during the international Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, and the shooting of Breonna Taylor, an elementary school and neighboring park in Gainesville that had been named after Confederate brigadier general Jesse Johnson Finley were renamed to Carolyn Beatrice Parker Elementary School and Park in her honor.

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, located in Batavia, Illinois established the Carolyn B. Parker Fellowship for the Superconducting Quantum Materials and System Center.

Further information

 * Carolyn Beatrice Parker is listed in: Gates LH Jr, Burkett NH, Burkett RK. Black biographical dictionaries, 1790–1950 [microform].
 * Google Scholar records an incomplete citation to this study: Parker, Carolyn Beatrice. Range Distribution of 122 Mev (pi) and (pi−) Mesons in Brass. 1953.