{"id":39836,"date":"2015-02-05T02:43:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T02:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=39836"},"modified":"2017-03-14T17:18:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T17:18:28","slug":"pioneering-african-american-chemist-refused-to-pass-for-white-he-sought-cure-for-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=39836","title":{"rendered":"Pioneering African-American chemist refused to &#8216;pass&#8217; for white; he sought cure for cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/news\/local\/obituaries\/pioneering-african-american-chemist-refused-to-pass-for-white-he\/article_29ae5063-1eae-5c74-98ec-6d40ba2a8919.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>Pioneering African-American chemist refused to &#8216;pass&#8217; for white; he sought cure for cancer<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/a><br \/>\nSt. Louis, Missouri<br \/>\n2015-01-31<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bymichaelsorkin\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Michael D. Sorkin<\/strong><\/a>, Reporter<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/news\/local\/obituaries\/pioneering-african-american-chemist-refused-to-pass-for-white-he\/article_29ae5063-1eae-5c74-98ec-6d40ba2a8919.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com\/stltoday.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/a\/10\/a10df182-c2ee-547c-9bb6-be5bede3d2fb\/54cc3f1e4f921.image.jpg?resize=620%2C409\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<small>Lincoln I. Diuguid, then 84, in a 2001 photo. Photo by <a href=\"mailto:lskrivan@post-dispatch.com\" target=\"_blank\">Laurie Skrivan<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<p>Growing up, Lincoln Diuguid dreamed of becoming a scientist. He shoveled coal and snow to earn room and board at college. He couldn\u2019t afford enough to eat and lost weight. His father <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/hock#English\" target=\"_blank\">hocked<\/a> a life insurance policy to pay for a semester at graduate school.<\/p>\n<p>Although his academic adviser told him he was wasting his time, he wouldn\u2019t give up. He finally earned a doctorate in chemistry. He had everything except a job.<\/p>\n<p>Then he got an offer. A really good one. An executive at a chewing gum company in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_York_City\" target=\"_blank\">New York City<\/a> offered him a coveted position as assistant research director.<\/p>\n<p>There was just one catch: It was the 1940s. He had to agree to \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=5864\" target=\"_blank\">pass<\/a>\u201d as a white man and to never hire a black man.<\/p>\n<p>Diuguid (pronounced \u201cdewgid\u201d) was a light-complexioned African-American.<\/p>\n<p>He refused \u2014 and didn\u2019t get the job.<\/p>\n<p>That made him even more determined&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>..He died Tuesday (Jan. 27, 2015) at Beauvais Manor rehab center in St. Louis. He was 97 and had been diagnosed with pneumonia and the flu, his family said&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire obituary <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/news\/local\/obituaries\/pioneering-african-american-chemist-refused-to-pass-for-white-he\/article_29ae5063-1eae-5c74-98ec-6d40ba2a8919.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Growing up, Lincoln Diuguid dreamed of becoming a scientist. He shoveled coal and snow to earn room and board at college. He couldn\u2019t afford enough to eat and lost weight. His father hocked a life insurance policy to pay for a semester at graduate school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1245,8,6462,20],"tags":[19272,19271,19274,19275,19273],"class_list":["post-39836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-biography","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-lincoln-diuguid","tag-lincoln-i-diuguid","tag-michael-d-sorkin","tag-michael-sorkin","tag-st-louis-post-dispatch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39836"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52457,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39836\/revisions\/52457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}