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UniversityofCalifornia Berkeley Regional Oral History Office UniversityofCalifornia The BancroftLibrary Berkeley, California DavidBlackwell AN ORAL HISTORYWITH DAVID BLACKWELL Interviews conductedby NadineWilmot in 2002 and 2003 Copyright 2003 byThe Regents oftheUniversity ofCalifornia Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leadingparticipants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development ofNorthern California, the West, andthenation. OralHistory is amethodofcollectinghistoricalinformationthrough tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significantevents andawell-informedinterviewer, withthe goalofpreserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* Alluses ofthis manuscriptare coveredbya legal agreementbetweenThe Regents ofthe UniversityofCalifornia and David Blackwell, datedApril 11, 2002. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The BancroftLibrary oftheUniversity ofCalifornia, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should include identification ofthe specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use ofthe passages, and identificationoftheuser. Itis recommendedthatthis oral historybe cited as follows: David Blackwell, "An Oral History with David Blackwell," conducted by Nadine Wilmot in 2002 and 2003, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2003. CopyNo. J- David Blackwell, 1962 TABLE OF CONTENTS DAVID BLACKWELL IntroductionbyAlbertH. Bowker i Interview History iii Interview 1: April 11, 2002 1 [Minidisc 1] 1 Earlyyears and family in Centralia, Illinois 1 Collegeyears atUniversity ofIllinois, Champaign-Urbana 8 Interview 2: April 18, 2002 17 [Minidisc 2] 17 More on earlyyears in Centralia andundergraduate education 17 Graduate school with dissertation advisorJosephDoob 22 Obtaining a Rosenwald fellowship andgoing to the Institute forAdvanced Study 25 What is themeaning ofdeniedaccess? 33 Looking forwork 34 Teachingat Southern Universityand ClarkAtlantaUniversity 36 Interview 3: April 25, 2002 41 [Minidisc 3] 41 More onthe Institute forAdvanced Study 41 Howard 43 University Teaching andmathematics departmentfaculty 46 Marriage and family 53 Interview4: May2, 2002 57 [Minidisc 4] 57 HowardUniversity, curriculm and environment 57 Meeting Abe Girshick 62 Community ofstatisticians 66 Rao-Blackwell theorem 67 Bayesian approach 69 Summers atthe Rand Corporation 72 More on Bayesian approach 75 Reviewing papers forfavorites 77 Interview 5: May9, 2002 81 [Minidisc 5] 81 The mathematical mind 81 Anapproach to mathematical activity 81 Dynamic programming and information theory 84 Lester Dubins 86 Working on information theory with Leo Breiman 88 Reviewingpapers forfavorites 90 Government fundedresearch 95 Appliedmathversus pure math 97 Using computers in his work 97 Hugo Steinhaus 99 Interview 6: May 16, 2002 101 [Minidisc6] 101 Playinggames atRand 101 Stanford statistical community inthe early 1950s 102 Comingto Berkeley 106 FriendshipwithJerzyNewman 108 Living inBerkeley 109 Berkeley s departmentofstatistics 110 Summer Statistics Program forDisadvantaged Students 114 Involvement inthe Academic Senate 117 Afro-American Studies Committee Chairfortwo weeks 119 Free SpeechMovementprotests on campus 120 Militarywork 121 Familyand social change 123 Living in Londonas directorofthe Study AboardProgram 123 Rouse Ball Lecture in London 124 Interview 7: May 23, 2002 127 [Minidisc?] 127 Comingto Berkeley, educationofchildren in Berkeley 127 Brownv. BoardofEducation 128 OtherAfrican American facultyat Berkeley in 1954 130 Perception ofteachingas aprofessionintheAfrican American community 132 Professional organizations forAfricanAmericanmathematicians 132 Changingrace relations and identity 133 Friendship with Al Bowker 134 Photo and interactions withWilliam Shockley 135 Awards andhonors 137 VisitingEurope, ancestral math sites, Bayes andDoblin 138 Intuitionandmath 140 Graduate students 142 Music andmath 144 More onCentralia andfamily 145 Northtown and Southtown 147 Grandchildren 149 Civil Rights Movement 150 Interview 8: September 11, 2002 153 [Minidisc 8] 153 UC Affirmative action at Berkeley 153 Howardversus UC Berkeley, ateaching institution versus a research institution 154 The roots ofbeing anti-war 155 How having afamily and children impactedprofessional choices 156 Interview 9: November 13, 2003, and Interview 10: January 29, 2003 inserted intext [Minidisc 9]