In an unrelated comment, see the following, relative to MB's inquiry about interesting series to watch on TV:

"On the day that Percy L. Julian graduated at the top of his class at DePauw University, his great-grandmother bared her shoulders and, for the first time, showed him the deep scars that remained from a beating she had received as a slave during the last days of the Civil War. She then clutched his Phi Beta Kappa key in her hand and said, 'This is worth all the scars.'" In today's New York Times, Felicia R. Lee uses that story to begin a preview of tonight's premiere of a two hour film on Julian, a 1920 graduate of DePauw, on PBS.

"Forgotten Genius," writes Lee, "dramatizes the story of Mr. Julian, a largely neglected black chemist who was nonetheless one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. He is played by the Tony Award-winning actor Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and the moment with his great-grandmother is but one in a film full of the echoes of the country's painful racial history. The NOVA filmmakers' effort to revive Mr. Julian's legacy is not only riveting, but also one of the most ambitious projects in the 34-year history of NOVA."

Posted by: annette on February 6, 2007 11:36 AM