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Title: Interview with Wesley Memeger, Jr., 2020 September 27 [transcript]
Date(s): 2020-09-27
Contributor(s): Memeger, Wesley, Jr. (interviewee), Nutter, Jeanne D. (interviewer), Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation (originator)
Description: During this interview, Dr. Wesley (Wes) Memeger details his early life in Florida. He describes his family, headed by his grandfather, working and travelling as migrant farmers. He then describes his elementary school, Webster School, and family beach trips to a segregated beach near Saint Augustine.

Memeger goes on to describe his first remembered experience with science, doing pendulum experiments in eighth grade physical science class. He then details his high school years at Excelsior ...
Show moreDuring this interview, Dr. Wesley (Wes) Memeger details his early life in Florida. He describes his family, headed by his grandfather, working and travelling as migrant farmers. He then describes his elementary school, Webster School, and family beach trips to a segregated beach near Saint Augustine.

Memeger goes on to describe his first remembered experience with science, doing pendulum experiments in eighth grade physical science class. He then details his high school years at Excelsior (later Richard J. Murray High School), both his studies and his participation on the football team. He also recounts an incident during a summer working on a flower farm when his mother stood up for him over the objection of the farm's white foreman.

Memeger then describes how he came to attend Clark College. He details various aspects of his college experience, including his dormitory and his chemistry professors. He discusses the impact that his English professor, M. Carl Holman, had on his life. He also details his participation in a 1961 student day of protest for civil rights. He then discusses his membership in Omega Psi Phi and how he met his future wife, Harriet.

Memeger goes on to discuss his graduate education at Adelphi University, including the impact that being a new father had on his graduate school experience. He then details his hiring by DuPont and describes the three other Black chemists who were at the company when he was initially hired. He also discusses how DuPont used a composite sketch of a Black contract employee on the cover of the 200th company anniversary issue of DuPont Magazine.

Memeger then details his involvement on the Kevlar project, describes the molecular structure of the monomer of Kevlar and Kevlar products. He then discusses his patents and other aspects of his career at DuPont. He then speaks about his children and his involvement with the Delaware community serving on the boards of cultural institutions. Finally, Dr. Memeger discusses his life as an artist, from an early sketch of his son to his current projects and his collaboration with his wife, who is a fiber artist.
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Collection ID: Black Delawarean STEM pioneers oral history project (Accession 2021.202)
Hagley ID: 2021202_20200927_Memeger_transcript
Collection: Oral History

Title: Interview with Rosetta McKinley Henderson, 2022 August 6-7 [transcript]
Date(s): 2022-08-06, 2022-08-07
Contributor(s): Henderson, Rosetta McKinley (interviewee), Nutter, Jeanne D. (interviewer), Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation (originator)
Description: During this interview, Rosetta McKinley Henderson details her early life in Fairhope, Alabama. She provides several childhood anecdotes, such as her parents' meeting, her brother, her pet turtle, her father being treated in a segregated hospital after a car accident, family garden, and going to church. She describes elementary school at Anna T Jean School and then details college at Alabama State in Montgomery. She discusses changing her major from biology, her job at the library, and her...
Show moreDuring this interview, Rosetta McKinley Henderson details her early life in Fairhope, Alabama. She provides several childhood anecdotes, such as her parents' meeting, her brother, her pet turtle, her father being treated in a segregated hospital after a car accident, family garden, and going to church. She describes elementary school at Anna T Jean School and then details college at Alabama State in Montgomery. She discusses changing her major from biology, her job at the library, and her joining the debate team and debating against Barbara Jordan. She mentions teaching Sunday school and pledging at the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She then describes participating in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, attending meetings and hearing Martin Luther King, Jr., speak.

Henderson then discusses earning her Master's degree at Fiske University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she studied under Dr. Samuel Massie. She describes an incident of eating at a segregated restaurant while with her boyfriend and a professor. She then moves on to discussing her pre-doctoral research experience at Oregon State University, for which she had received a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Henderson goes on to describe her time at Ohio University pursuing a PhD and an incident in which a professor accused her of cheating when she needed to turn a desk around as she was left-handed. She describes her decision to leave the program and her job search, which was aided by a supportive professor. She mentions a job opportunity disappearing upon the recruiter learning her race and the offers she received from Corningware, Eastman Kodak, Midland, and finally DuPont.

Henderson then mentions moving to Wilmington, her research at DuPont, and an incident when a lawyer used a racial slur in a meeting. She goes into detail about the difficulty she faced finding an apartment in a segregated Wilmington and the assistance she received from colleagues. She then discusses meeting her husband, James L. Henderson, and his career as an architect in Washington, D.C. She describes having two children and the accommodations her supervisor made when she returned to the workplace. She finally discusses her time with DuPont Merck, managing the Upward Bound program at Delaware Tech and teaching a laboratory class at Neumann University.

Moving on from discussing her career, Henderson describes being active in her church, St. Joseph Catholic Church, the oldest African American Catholic church in Wilmington. She then discusses her siblings, including her sister Edith Rasberry, who Henderson recalls being the only African-American bail bondswoman in the state of Michigan and who was married to Ted Rasberry, the owner of the baseball team the Grand Rapids Black Sox. She also describes her brother Harry, who was a pilot and engineer; her brothers Roy and Brady, who owned a large demolition company; her sister Eddie Alberia, who was a surgeon; and her brother Leonard, who was a butcher.

The interviewer, Dr. Jeanne D. Nutter, then asks Henderson to revisit a few items, including her job as a teenager cleaning house for a White woman, her father's car accident, Dr. Samuel Massie, her patents, and taking a course in heterocyclic compounds at the University of Houston.
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Collection ID: Black Delawarean STEM pioneers oral history project (Accession 2021.202)
Hagley ID: 2021202_20220806_Henderson_transcript
Collection: Oral History

Title: Interview with Rosetta McKinley Henderson, 2022 August 6-7
Date(s): 2022-08-06, 2022-08-07
Contributor(s): Henderson, Rosetta McKinley (interviewee), Nutter, Jeanne D. (interviewer), Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation (originator)
Description: During this interview, Rosetta McKinley Henderson details her early life in Fairhope, Alabama. She provides several childhood anecdotes, such as her parents' meeting, her brother, her pet turtle, her father being treated in a segregated hospital after a car accident, family garden, and going to church. She describes elementary school at Anna T Jean School and then details college at Alabama State in Montgomery. She discusses changing her major from biology, her job at the library, and her...
Show moreDuring this interview, Rosetta McKinley Henderson details her early life in Fairhope, Alabama. She provides several childhood anecdotes, such as her parents' meeting, her brother, her pet turtle, her father being treated in a segregated hospital after a car accident, family garden, and going to church. She describes elementary school at Anna T Jean School and then details college at Alabama State in Montgomery. She discusses changing her major from biology, her job at the library, and her joining the debate team and debating against Barbara Jordan. She mentions teaching Sunday school and pledging at the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She then describes participating in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, attending meetings and hearing Martin Luther King, Jr., speak.

Henderson then discusses earning her Master's degree at Fiske University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she studied under Dr. Samuel Massie. She describes an incident of eating at a segregated restaurant while with her boyfriend and a professor. She then moves on to discussing her pre-doctoral research experience at Oregon State University, for which she had received a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Henderson goes on to describe her time at Ohio University pursuing a PhD and an incident in which a professor accused her of cheating when she needed to turn a desk around as she was left-handed. She describes her decision to leave the program and her job search, which was aided by a supportive professor. She mentions a job opportunity disappearing upon the recruiter learning her race and the offers she received from Corningware, Eastman Kodak, Midland, and finally DuPont.

Henderson then mentions moving to Wilmington, her research at DuPont, and an incident when a lawyer used a racial slur in a meeting. She goes into detail about the difficulty she faced finding an apartment in a segregated Wilmington and the assistance she received from colleagues. She then discusses meeting her husband, James L. Henderson, and his career as an architect in Washington, D.C. She describes having two children and the accommodations her supervisor made when she returned to the workplace. She finally discusses her time with DuPont Merck, managing the Upward Bound program at Delaware Tech and teaching a laboratory class at Neumann University.

Moving on from discussing her career, Henderson describes being active in her church, St. Joseph Catholic Church, the oldest African American Catholic church in Wilmington. She then discusses her siblings, including her sister Edith Rasberry, who Henderson recalls being the only African-American bail bondswoman in the state of Michigan and who was married to Ted Rasberry, the owner of the baseball team the Grand Rapids Black Sox. She also describes her brother Harry, who was a pilot and engineer; her brothers Roy and Brady, who owned a large demolition company; her sister Eddie Alberia, who was a surgeon; and her brother Leonard, who was a butcher.

The interviewer, Dr. Jeanne D. Nutter, then asks Henderson to revisit a few items, including her job as a teenager cleaning house for a White woman, her father's car accident, Dr. Samuel Massie, her patents, and taking a course in heterocyclic compounds at the University of Houston.
Show less
Collection ID: Black Delawarean STEM pioneers oral history project (Accession 2021.202)
Hagley ID: 2021202_20220806_Henderson_video
Collection: Oral History

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