Manhattan Project Scientists: William Jacob Knox, Jr.

William Jacob Knox, Jr. was the only black Manhattan Project supervisor.

US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Quick Facts

Significance:

The Manhattan Project’s only black supervisor

Place of Birth:

New Bedford, MA

Date of Birth:

January 5, 1904

Place of Death:

Newton, MA

Date of Death:

July 9, 1995

Born in Massachusetts in 1904, William Jacob Knox, Jr. earned his PhD in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1935. In 1942, Knox joined scientists at Columbia University in New York, using corrosive uranium hexaflouride gas to isolate uranium 235, which would ultimately be enriched on an industrial scale at Oak Ridge. For his efforts Knox was appointed to lead the all-white Corrosion Section at Columbia, earning him the distinction of being the Manhattan Project’s only black supervisor. His brother Lawrence also worked on the Manhattan Project beginning in 1944, studying effects of radiation. 

After the war, Knox worked for Eastman Kodak in Rochester, NY, earning 21 patents throughout his 25-year career. In addition, Knox was a co-founder of the Rochester Urban League, a member of the NAACP, served on the Housing Advisory Council, and assisted minority students in pursuing higher education. William Jacob Knox, Jr. died in Massachusetts in 1995.