David blackwell contributions to math

Biography

David Blackwell's parents were Grover Blackwell and Mabel Johnson and David was the oldest of their four children. Grover Blackwell worked for the Illinois Central Railroad and his job consisted of looking after the locomotives while Mabel looked after the family bringing up David, his two brothers and one sister.

As an African American David might well have attended one of the two racially segregated elementary schools in Centralia but, in his own words, he was fortunate to attend an integrated school. He said in an interview [2]:-

Southern Illinois was probably fairly racist even when I was growing up there.

The school I went to was integrated, but there was also a segregated white school in the same town.

David blackwell early life

David blackwell early life

David blackwell children

David blackwell education

David blackwell death

David blackwell accomplishments

There were in fact two segregated schools, one that only blacks could attend and one that only whites could attend. But I was not even aware of these problems - I had no sense of being discriminated against. My parents protected us from i