George Warren Reed Jr.

George Warren Reed Jr. (1920–2015) was an African American physicist known for his contributions to nuclear physics and his active involvement in civil rights activism. His mother graduated from Miner Teachers College and worked hard to provide for him. In early childhood, he was not allowed to work, even though the family had slight difficulties. His only focus was to attend school and come home to complete all his assignments. Reed's main purpose was to make fissionable uranium to produce and sustain a nuclear reaction; he also examined the radiation of two chemicals, uranium and plutonium, in different stages at the chemistry division of the Argonne National Laboratory. He studied, and research fission yields related to uranium and thorium to a definitive nuclear chain reaction. At first, numerous black scientists who worked on Oak Ridge's atomic bomb were not recognized for their knowledge and expertise. Therefore a "Solid South" bloc of Democrats in Congress insisted that the new city reflected the Jim Crow segregation where African American could work.

Reed died in Chicago on August 31, 2015, from natural causes.