- Person
- Albert Einstein
- Lived
- 1879–1955
- Field
- Physics
- From
- German-American
The story
In October 1933 Albert Einstein, now a refugee from Nazi Germany, returned to the United States to take up a post at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He had seen at first hand how quickly prejudice could become state policy: in April 1933 the new German government had barred Jews from teaching at universities. In America he admired the freedom to say and think what one pleased, but he was struck by the segregation he saw around him.
He joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Princeton and campaigned for the civil rights of African Americans. He called racism America's worst disease and described it as something handed down from one generation to the next. He explained his stance in personal terms, saying that as a Jew he could understand and empathise with how Black Americans felt as victims of discrimination.
His support took practical forms. When the Black contralto Marian Anderson was refused a room at Princeton's Nassau Inn in 1937, he invited her to stay at his home, and she stayed with him on later visits. A Princeton resident recalled that he once paid the college tuition of a Black student.
In 1946 Einstein visited Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, a historically Black institution that was the first in the United States to grant college degrees to African Americans and whose alumni include Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall. He received an honorary degree and gave a speech about racism in America, telling his audience that he did not intend to be quiet about it.
He also corresponded with the scholar and civil rights leader W. E. B. Du Bois. In 1951, when Du Bois was put on trial as an alleged foreign agent, Einstein offered to appear as a character witness on his behalf. The judge then decided to drop the case.
At a time when few prominent white Americans spoke out, the world's most famous scientist used his platform to name racism as a moral failing and to stand alongside those fighting it.
Why it matters
Einstein lent the prestige of the world's most famous scientist to the struggle for racial equality at a time when few public figures did, and his words against racism are still widely quoted.
About Albert Einstein
Theoretical physicist; relativity, the photoelectric effect, E=mc². Reshaped 20th-century physics and won the 1921 Nobel Prize.
More about Albert Einstein
- Einstein published four world-changing papers in 1905In 1905, while working as a patent clerk in Bern, Albert Einstein published four papers that transformed physics. Historians call it his miracle year.
- A 1919 eclipse confirmed Einstein's general relativityEinstein's 1915 theory of general relativity predicted that the sun bends starlight. Eclipse measurements in May 1919 matched his calculations and made him world famous.
- Einstein's photoelectric law, basis of modern light techIn 1905 Albert Einstein explained the photoelectric effect by proposing that light comes in packets of energy, work that won him the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- Einstein predicted a new state of matter in 1924Building on work by Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, Albert Einstein predicted in 1924 that atoms cooled near absolute zero would merge into one quantum state. It was created in 1995.
- Einstein predicted gravitational waves in 1916In 1916 Albert Einstein predicted ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves. LIGO detected them directly on 14 September 2015, nearly one hundred years later.
- Einstein's 1917 idea of stimulated emission led to the laserIn 1917 Albert Einstein introduced the concept of stimulated emission of light. Decades later it became the working principle of the maser and the laser.
- Einstein welcomed Marian Anderson into his home in 1937When a Princeton hotel refused a room to the Black contralto Marian Anderson in 1937, Albert Einstein invited her to stay at his house. She stayed with him on later visits.
- Einstein inspired the founding of the Rescue CommitteeIn 1933 the American branch of the International Relief Association was founded at Albert Einstein's suggestion to help people suffering under Hitler. It grew into the IRC.
- Einstein helped place German Jewish scientists in TurkeyIn September 1933 Albert Einstein wrote to Turkey’s prime minister asking him to employ German Jewish scientists dismissed by the Nazis. Hundreds of refugee scholars found posts in Turkey.
- Einstein helped raise funds to found the Hebrew UniversityIn 1921 Chaim Weizmann asked Albert Einstein to help raise money for a planned Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Einstein toured America for the cause, and the university opened in 1925.
Sources
- Albert Einstein Wikipedia
- Marian Anderson Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.