Robinson has had a long, accomplished career, and he credits
his success to the quality of his early education. He graduated from the University of Memphis with a
degree in chemistry and earned his doctorate in nuclear chemistry from
Washington University in St. Louis in 1984. Later that year, he joined ORNL as a
staff researcher and eventual group leader.
His time at ORNL was marked by his investigation into the
cause of death of President Zachary Taylor in 1850. Using neutrons from the
High Flux Isotope Reactor and samples of Taylor’s hair and fingernails,
Robinson and his team determined that Taylor did not die from arsenic
poisoning, debunking a long-held speculation about the late president’s demise.
“Florida A&M got it right from the start,” he said. “No
one ever stood on the front steps and said you couldn’t come here, and no one
ever will. Our doors have been open to everyone.”
Robinson began his college education at LeMoyne-Owen
College, a small historically black college also in Memphis. His time there, he
said, showed him firsthand how HBCUs serve the community and the impact they
have on the academic and social future of their graduates.
“HBCUs are able to flip their graduates’ economic realities
in less than a generation. That’s a remarkable feat,” Robinson said. “They are
largely responsible for the emergence of the black middle class throughout this
country.”
HBCUs make up only three percent of America’s total
institutions of higher learning, yet enroll more than 11 percent of the
country’s black students. Nearly half of all black teachers and lawyers, and
eight of every 10 black judges, are HBCU graduates.
Furthermore, HBCUs account for 60 percent of all black
students who go on to earn doctoral degrees in STEM fields. Even more
impressive, Robinson said, is that HBCUs can achieve all of this with a
fraction of the endowment of larger, more well-known institutions.
“With so little, we’re able to do so much,” he said.
America needs institutions like Florida A&M more than
ever, Robinson said, if it hopes to overcome the current crisis in black
education. There is a chronic underrepresentation of teachers of color in
public schools relative to the growth of students of color. By 2020, an
estimated 300,00 new teachers will be needed each year, so the education system
must look to communities of color for a more diversified workforce capable of
providing quality education for tomorrow’s children.
“Over the past few decades, African American students across
the nation have made real gains in academic achievement, yet too many are not
getting the quality education they need and deserve,” Robinson said. “These
deficiencies are driven by gaps in opportunity and school resources.”
Robinson said the agendas of HBCUs have historically gone
hand-in-hand with the civil rights movement, citing Martin Luther King Jr.’s
“fierce urgency of now” and the need for “vigorous and positive action” on education
reform and equality.
“You have to have to come out to carry the baton and ensure
that young people have the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way,” he
said. “Throughout our history, nothing has come easy, and we don’t expect it to
change anytime soon.”
Robinson also stressed the importance of cooperation within
communities and strategic partnerships with institutions, such as ORNL, with
the ability to enable large-scale change. With their help, historically black
colleges and universities can assert themselves as major players and shape the
future of black education.
“I don’t think we can afford to sit around and wait for
something to fall out of the sky,” he said. “We have to take this on
headfirst.”