À 23 ans, elle guérit la lèpre. À 24 ans, elle disparaît.
Et pendant 90 ans, un homme blanc s'attribua le mérite de ses travaux.
Voici l'histoire d'Alice Augusta Ball, le génie qu'on a tenté d'effacer.
Elle grandit à Seattle au début du XXe siècle, dans une famille qui croyait au potentiel des Noirs.
Son grand-père fut l'un des premiers photographes noirs d'Amérique.
Sa mère lavait les sols pour pouvoir offrir un microscope à Alice.
Ce cadeau changea le monde.
Alice dévorait la chimie comme l'oxygène.
Elle obtint deux licences.
Elle publia des recherches alors qu'elle était encore étudiante.
Puis elle s'installa à Hawaï et devint :
📷 La première femme à obtenir une maîtrise en chimie à l'Université d'Hawaï
📷 La première femme noire à obtenir ce diplôme
📷 La première femme professeure de chimie de l'histoire de l'université
Elle avait 23 ans.
Mais pendant qu'elle enseignait, elle fut confrontée à une urgence bien plus grande que le monde universitaire :
La maladie de Hansen, la lèpre.
Un diagnostic signifiait l'exil.
Arraché à sa famille, on était déporté sur une île pour y mourir seul.
Il existait un traitement :
une huile amère et collante, peu efficace et extrêmement douloureuse.
Nombreux furent ceux qui le refusèrent. Nombreux furent ceux qui moururent.
Alice refusa de baisser les bras.
Dans son laboratoire, elle trouva la solution que personne d'autre n'avait trouvée :
Elle transforma cette huile épaisse en une forme assimilable par le corps.
Une injection révolutionnaire qui sauva enfin des vies.
Les patients commencèrent à guérir.
Des familles furent réunies.
Des personnes condamnées guérirent subitement.
Sa découverte devint la méthode Ball.
Elle changea l'histoire de la médecine avant même que la plupart des gens n'aient terminé leurs études.
Et puis… elle disparut.
À seulement 24 ans, un mystérieux accident de laboratoire lui coûta la vie.
Elle ne vit jamais le miracle qu'elle avait accompli.
Puis vint le vol.
Le président de l'université, un chimiste blanc nommé Arthur Dean, s'appropria ses recherches, en retira son nom et les rebaptisa :
« La Méthode Dean ».
Pendant des décennies…
📷 Son nom figurait dans les manuels scolaires.
📷 Son nom était encensé par les médecins.
📷 Son nom était attribué à la seule reconnaissance de ses mérites.
Son nom a failli disparaître complètement de l'histoire.
Un vol si discret que la plupart des gens ignoraient même qu'un crime avait été commis.
Il fallut 90 ans pour que la vérité éclate enfin.
Des chercheurs ont mis au jour les documents originaux d'Alice.
Son travail.
Son génie.
Ses découvertes majeures.
Les projecteurs se sont braqués sur elle. Le mensonge s'est effondré.
Et aujourd'hui, le monde le sait :
C'était la Méthode Ball – TOUJOURS.
Alice Ball a guéri une maladie qui avait ravagé des vies pendant des siècles.
Elle a libéré des familles.
Elle a sauvé des milliers de personnes de l'isolement et de la mort. Et elle a accompli tout cela en une seule année.
Imaginez ce qu'elle aurait pu faire en une vie entière.
Alice Ball méritait un prix Nobel.
Elle méritait des statues.
Elle méritait que son nom soit sur toutes les lèvres des étudiants en sciences.
Au lieu de cela, elle a été étouffée par le silence…
Jusqu'à aujourd'hui.
Nous prononçons son nom parce que l'histoire a refusé de le faire.
Nous l'honorons parce que d'autres ne l'ont pas fait.
Nous nous souvenons d'elle parce qu'elle l'a mérité.
Alice Augusta Ball (1892-1916)
La chimiste qui a changé le monde avant même d'avoir eu le temps d'y vivre.
COLBERT: How dumb do you think it is for people to say that I should run for president?
OBAMA: Well, you know, the bar has changed. I think you would perform significantly better than some folks we've seen.
COLBERT: Is that an endorsement?
OBAMA: It was not
BREAKING: This ad, when tested, moves voters 4.1 points to Democrats to win the House
That’s HUGE MOVEMENT!
Voters are angry that Trump’s judges are coming for abortion rights. Again.
You know what to do. SHARE. THIS. EVERYWHERE.
Black people in America need to be registered to vote, all of us. Full Fk’n Stop.
In states like Georgia, Maryland, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, turning to vote can shift outcomes in House, Senate, and gubernatorial races.
Look at Georgia. About 3.5 million Black residents live here. Roughly 2.5 million of us are eligible to vote, yet only around 1.4 million of us actually do. That leaves between 900,000 and 1.1 million eligible Black voters not participating.
Now compare that to the margins of the last two Ga: governor’s races. In 2018, the race was decided by about 54,000 votes. In 2022, about 191,000 votes. The number of eligible Black voters not participating is between 7 and 10x larger than those margins.
This isn’t about theory, it’s about MATH. If we show up consistently, outcomes change. The shift starts with registration, and it is sustained by turnout.
Register and VOTE.
A white woman thought she had the perfect argument against reparations... how can Black people prove their lineage if they don’t even know who their dad is 😭 One sentence. Two myths. Both destroyed by actual history and federal data 👀 The US
This is heartbreaking and unconscionable. After weeks in family detention, toddler Amalia was rushed to a hospital with critically low oxygen levels. She fought for her life in intensive care—under ICE watch—only to be sent back to the very Dilley center where she nearly died, amid widespread respiratory illnesses among children.
This cruelty has no place in America.
The media moved on like nothing happened.
A sitting congressman, Ted Lieu, said on the record the Epstein files are being blocked because they show Trump raped and threatened to kill children.
Keep sharing this so it doesn’t get buried.
BREAKING: Trump punishes Pope Leo for criticizing his Iran War by stripping $11 million from Catholic Charities in Florida that was supposed to help shelter and care for children who enter the country alone.
Trump is terrorizing kids in America while killing them overseas...
“The U.S. government has abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski. “The Archdiocese of Miami’s services for unaccompanied minors have been recognized for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country.”
"Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched. Yet, the Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities’ services for unaccompanied minors has been stripped of funding and will be forced to shut down within three months," he added.
The Department of Homeland Security, through its Office of Refugee Resettlement, has paid Catholic Charities in Miami for years to help house children who enter the country without accompanying adults. The Miami Herald describes the program as essentially a "federally funded foster care system."
Bishop Wenski said that despite there being a recent decrease in unaccompanied minors “it is baffling that the U.S. government would shut down a program that it would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence."
Robert Latham, associate director of the University of Miami Law School’s Children and Youth Law Clinic, said that the gutting of funding and possible need to move the children elsewhere could inflict serious damage on their developing psyches.
"It’s incredibly psychologically harmful to be moved,” he said. “For little kids, moving repeatedly creates bonding issues and destroys the sense of both self and community. They don’t know who they are and where they will be."
“This should only be done with a lot of emotional support that you normally would find within a family. Unfortunately, that is not there in a group home setting,” Latham added.
Of course, Donald Trump couldn't care less about the suffering of children. This man was friends with Jeffrey Epstein for years and been accused of sexual abuse himself. He started his Iran War by blowing up a school full of little girls and his administration has worked around the clock to strip funding from programs that feed, educate, and house children.
While the administration has not admitted that these funding cuts are payback against Pope Leo, the point A to point B is apparent. Trump is the most vindictive man to ever hold the presidency. He has been relentlessly attacking Leo for criticizing his Iran War. This is him using financial leverage in an effort to beat the Pope into submission. It will not work.
Please ❤️ and share to demand that the funding be doubled when Democrats take back control!
Another large corporate merger tightening its grip on the food system. Not only would this limit purchasing options for independent restaurants, it would raise costs. Sysco could limit what ends up on the menu, reshaping dining experiences, and draining our wallets.
ICE detain 2 elementary students—deport them within 48 hours.
'This week ICE crossed a new alarming line," said lawyer. "Children are being targeted."
They were deported with nothing but the clothes on their backs��to place where they have no home, no belongings, nor resources.
6-year-old Denis and 11-year-old Genesis—both students at Burton Magnet Elementary School—were detained with their parents while attending an asylum hearing.
Their phones and documents were taken away before being driven away in unmarked van with dark tinted windows—so they couldn't even wave goodbye to their family.
"If we do everything according to the law we can still get kidnapped in the middle of the day and taken away... What are people supposed to do?"
Incident occurred in Durham, North Carolina.
-no showers for over 40 days.
-lights kept on all night & people sleep on concrete floors.
-complaining of hunger ~ Rep. Jim McGovern
Our brothers. Look at them. Look at how they are begging for help. Putting their hands together "please help us" 😭
THIS IS NOT OK!
RETWEET 💔
I've taught European history for 30 years. Americans have always asked me how the Holocaust was possible, how Germans could have enabled a madman reveling in mass murder to carry out his plans. Now we can see in real time how this is enabled; now we have front-row seats.