Ernest Just Middle dedicates statue of school’s namesake

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The granddaughter of biologist and educator Ernest Everett Just dabbed away tears from her eyes Friday morning as a statue of her grandfather was unveiled at the Mitchellville middle school named after him, eight years after the school opened and more than six years after work for the statue began.

“This is important for the children,” said Kathryn Just, 62, of Northwest Washington, D.C. “For some it will open a discussion of why it is there. There are many lessons that can come from that statue outside.”

The 7-foot-tall bronze statue of Just holding an open book is mounted on a nearly 4-foot-tall brick platform outside near the school’s main entrance. The statue was dedicated Friday at Ernest Everett Just Middle School, one week after Just’s birth date.

The statue cost about $90,000 and was paid for by state funds, said Wesley Jarmon, president of the Ernest Everett Just Foundation Inc., a Largo-based nonprofit organization that works to promote Just’s legacy and interest students in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Just, a black biologist who was influential in the field of cell biology, died at age 58 in 1941. He is buried in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland.

He also founded the historically black Omega Psi Phi Fraternity in 1911 at Howard University in the District. Nearly 30 fraternity members attended the ceremony.

The Ernest Everett Just Foundation, which was founded in 2002, petitioned the Prince George’s County Board of Education to name the school after Just and petitioned the state of Maryland to fund the statue.

About six years ago, the foundation approached Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Dist. 25) of District Heights to fund the statue, said Currie, who secured $150,000 in state funds for the statue. The remaining $60,000 went back to the state.

“I got the statue here so we could bring busloads of kids here to tell his story,” Currie said.

Antonio Tobias Mendez, 46, of Frederick said he was contacted more than six years ago about creating the statue. Two years later, in 2006, Mendez made a computer rendering.

From November until June, Mendez worked on the clay sculpture of Just, which was then cast in bronze.

“It’s a very unique project, in that regardless of the subject, I can’t think of another public school that has a monument in front of it for their namesake,” Mendez said. “I think it’s important that anyone who visits the school learn about Ernest Just.”

Mendez said the statue has Just holding a book because Just was also an educator. He taught English and biology from 1910 to 1941 at Howard University.

The statue, which weighs between 700 and 800 pounds, sits on a nearly 4-foot-tall brick pedestal to reflect the architecture of the school and to be in proportion with its surroundings, Mendez said.

Keynote speaker Titus Reaves, an assistant professor of regenerative medicine and cell biology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C., spoke to the more than 100 people who attended the ceremony about Just’s life. Just was born in Charleston.

“[Just] was a really great man who was before his time,” Reaves said.

The Medical University of South Carolina hosts an annual Ernest Everett Just symposium to encourage black students to pursue a career in science.

The middle school’s principal, Carlton Carter, said Friday that he anticipated students to return to school on Monday and be in awe of the statue, and he would like the school to partner with the university to better understand who Just was and to pursue student scholarships.

“The statue will be a constant reminder of his legacy,” Carter said. “It’s a living, visual stimulation and a reminder to the students that nothing is impossible. I’m extremely pleased to have it for the kids. It’s all about sight.”

The Mitchellville plaque on the statue of Ernest Everett Just reads:

Ernest Everett Just

Pioneer biologist, Howard University professor, First recipient of the Springarn Medal

May the students that walk through these halls find the seeds of the spirit of learning that

Dr. Just planted to support and enhance every one’s education.

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