In the forward Martin D. Jenkins pointed out that while African Americans made important contributions to the natural sciences the awareness of the public and even other scientists was rather low. In the first chapter Herman R. Branson provided an overview and the challenges facing the Negro scientist, and in the chapters that followed influential black scientists described their contributions to biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Branson worked with Linus Pauling on protein stricture. Montague Cobb, another contributor, was the first African American to earn a PhD in anthropology. Physicist Warren Henry, well known for his outstanding work on superconductivity, also contributed to this work.