Nabrit, Samuel (1905-2003)
Role: TrusteeDates: 1967 - 1972
Portrait Location: Sayles Hall 108
Artist: Freeman, Robert (b. 1946)
Portrait Date: 1999
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Framed Dimensions:
Brown Portrait Number: 276
Brown Historical Property Number: 2316
Samuel Milton Nabrit was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Brown, the University's first African American Trustee, and the first African American appointed to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He was a professor at Atlanta University, president of Texas Southern University, a member of the National Science Board, and a founder of Upward Bound. He was the director of the Southern Fellowships Fund, a program that helped hundreds of African Americans earn their doctorates. In 1985 Brown established the Nabrit Fellowship to assist minority graduate students in recognition of Nabrit's many efforts to promote minority education, both at Brown and elsewhere.
Born in Macon, Georgia, in 1905 to the family of a Baptist minister and teacher, Nabrit received his first degree in science from Morehouse College in 1925. He immediately began teaching at Morehouse while working toward an advanced degree. Encouraged by Morehouse College president John Hope - a Brown alumnus- Nabrit applied to Brown's doctoral program in biology. Despite his strong credentials, Nabrit's application was initially denied due to apprehensions within the small, close-knit department about racial tensions. Following a phone call from President Hope, Brown President William Faunce intervened on Nabrit's behalf. Nabrit completed his degree within three years and went on to become an internationally acclaimed scholar for his research on animal regeneration.
Boston-artist Robert Freeman based this portrait on a photograph of Nabrit first published in the Brown Alumni Monthly . In Freeman's portrait Nabrit appears in the doorway of his chemistry laboratory in Arnold Lab. The portrait was unveiled at a Brown Corporation tribute to Dr. Nabrit at commencement in 1999, three years before his death in December 2003 at age 98.
In 2005, the Bethune Black Graduate Student Society changed its name to The Samuel M. Nabrit Black Graduate Student Association. Loosely referenced among members as "Nabrit," the association includes and welcomes all persons of the African diaspora who are seeking advanced degrees at Brown University. The name was changed to better reflect the heritage of the pursuit of advanced degrees at Brown University for students of African descent.