ERNEST EVERETT JUST, Ph.D., was the first recipient of the NAACP Spingarn Medal in 1915 for his extraordinary work as an African-American biologist and educator championing fertilization and embryonic development. He made major contributions. to fast and slow block to polymerase, understanding the rules of environmental factors on embryogenesis and conducting experiments to educate the mechanisms in parthenogenesis; he persevered through racism and prejudice and excelled throughout his career.