A Black History Month Lesson Using Weather As The Classroom

Many people do not understand Black History Month and scowl at its very existence. While that is mainly rooted in ignorance or misunderstanding, so many of us frequently face the question, “Why is there a Black History Month?” I typically smile and ask them if they know who these people are: Charles Drew, Warren Washington, or Madam C.J. Walker. I then pivot to questions asking if they are familiar with the role of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II or if they knew why Dr. Martin Luther King wrote his famous letter from a Birmingham jail. The blank stares are usually an opportunity to explain that many of us learned a truncated U.S. history in school so months like this help correct or fill history lessons omitted from curricula over the years. Shockingly, I was the first African-American to receive a doctorate from Florida State University and the second to serve as President of the American Meteorological Society. My doctoral student Marcus Williams, a meteorologist and geographer, was the first African American male to receive his doctorate from the Department of Geography at the University of Georgia (only a few years ago). It is a sad fact, but many “firsts” are still being made. I decided to reflect on some aspects of black history through the lens of weather.

For some reason, Rosa Parks was on my mind when I woke up this morning. I wondered what the weather was like on that day she took “a stand” by taking a seat. This women literally changed the course of history by refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. My family visited a monument to her recently. Many people incorrectly assume that Ms. Parks didn’t get up because she was tired. However, this is what she wrote in her 1992 book Rosa Parks: My Story:

I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.

According to Weather Underground, the average temperature that on December 1st, 1955 was 42 degrees F with a range from 57 degrees F to 28 degrees F.

Most marches took place in the South during the Civil Rights movement. The South experiences virtually every type of extreme weather imaginable: heatwaves, extreme rainfall, snowstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, drought and so on. Civil rights activist Jefferson Drew recently told Accuweather staff writer Mark Puleo, “Alabama has brutal humidity in the summertime,....Hot, sticky air made conditions nearly unbearable for us but somehow we overcame this obstacle by keeping our eye on the purpose.” I can only imagine what it was like to march in what were certainly unsafe heat index (temperature + humidity) conditions or in a downpour. According to the Accuweather article, a 50-mile voter registration protest march from Selma to Montgomery took place in March (1965). It rained.

As iconic and important as those peaceful demonstrations were to many of us, I have often found inspiration from individual offers too. Another icon of black history and a “mentor” from afar to me is Dr. George Washington Carver. Because my mother was an alumna of Tuskegee Institute (now University), I was familiar with the pioneering scientist at the school in southeastern Alabama. He did so many surprising things with the peanut. He was one of my favorite scientists as a kid, and I read many books about his agricultural research. It was only a few years ago that I learned that he also kept rather meticulous weather observations. This certainly makes sense given the importance of weather to peanuts, soybeans, cotton and other things that he was studying. The picture above is one of his weather observations. According to NOAA, Carver took observations from 1899 to 1932 and submitted them on government form 1009. He was part of the government’s Cooperative Observer Program, which still exists today. It is amazing (and startling at the same time) to think that one of the nation’s most prominent scientists of the early 20th century was actually born into slavery. Relatively speaking folks, slavery and civil rights marches of the 1960s are not that long ago, which likely explains why there are still many “first African Americans to do _____” even in 2020.

The small town of Tuskegee also played another role in history. The Tuskegee Airmen are a celebrated group of pilots that endured the sting of racial segregation. They were willing to serve a country that would not allow them to serve equally in the military at that time. Those are true patriots if you ask me. With all aviation activities, weather support is critical. Weather.com provides a nice summary of the evolution of the Tuskegee Weather Detachment:

In 1939, the Civilian Pilot Training Program was developed in order to gather more interest in aviation throughout America. White notes that social and political activism resulted in the CPT becoming available to six historically black institutes in America, including the Tuskegee Institute, as well as other integrated colleges. Because of this effort, White states that "it is estimated that as many as 2,000 black men and women completed one or more CPT courses between 1939 and the program's termination in 1944." On March 22, 1941, the 99th Pursuit Squadron was activated at Chanute Field, Illinois, and consisted of black Army troops, as well as other enlistees, including five black weather observers. On March 21, 1942, the Tuskegee Weather Detachment was formed.

Charles Anderson, the first African American to receive a doctorate in meteorology (MIT), was among this group. I hold an award that bears his name from the American Meteorological Society (AMS) though I never got to meet him.

Thankfully for my career, I did get to meet Dr. Warren Washington. He is a life-long mentor of mine that gave me valuable career advice that I cherish to this day. I mention Dr. Washington, a distinguished scientist and scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), because his pioneering work on climate models has earned him significant recognitions. He even received the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama. When great black scientists in history are named, Dr. Washington must stand along side Carver, Drew, and others in the rundown.

I am the director of an atmospheric sciences program at nation’s oldest publicly chartered institution of higher learning, the University of Georgia. I was reflecting recently that our program will likely have its first African American women graduate from the program this Spring. While for that young lady, it is stepping stone for the rest of her career, one day I hope she reflects on the significance of that moment as I am sure June Bacon Bercey did when she graduate with a degree in meteorology in the 1950s and became, according to CNN, “a trailblazer who has been called the first American woman to become a TV meteorologist.”

This was only a snapshot of black history through the lens of meteorology. I attended the Color of Weather reception at the American Meteorological Society meeting in Boston recently. I scanned the room and realized that history is still being written. However, the narrative is not just about individuals. Extreme weather events like Hurricane Katrina and Harvey portend a new reality. Marginalized, poor, and disenfranchised communities are disproportionately vulnerable to heatwaves, hurricanes, floods, and other weather events likely being amplified by climate change. I have often talked about the “weather gap” because such disparities are intricately tied to the “income or wealth” gap. It is not surprising that noted civil rights leader and pastor Gerald Durley has opined that “climate change is a civil rights issue” now.