Johnnie Hines Watts Prothro

Dr. Johnnie Hines Watts Prothro (February 28, 1922 – June 6, 2009) was an American nutritionist in the South whose career spanned the eras of racial segregation, Jim Crow laws, and the passing of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.

Johnnie Hines Watts was born in Atlanta, Georgia on February 28, 1922. After graduating from high school at the age of 15, she attended Spelman College where she received a BS degree with honors in Home Economics. Her first job after graduation was as a teacher at the all-black Booker T. Washington High School (1941–1945). She left this position to continue her education, and received an MS from Columbia University in 1946. After one year of teaching chemistry at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (1946–1947), she moved to Chicago to pursue a Ph.D. She studied at the University of Chicago and received her Ph.D. in 1952 after completing a thesis on "The Relation of the Rates of Inactivation of Peroxidase, Catecholase, and Ascorbase to the Oxidation of Ascorbic Acid in Vegetables."

Prothro was an associate professor of chemistry and later a professor of home economics and food administration at the Tuskeegee Institute in Alabama (1952–1963). However, due to the sustained racial tension and abuse she experienced living in the south, she and her family decided to move north. She worked as an associate professor of home economics at the University of Connecticut at Storrs from 1963–1967. Prothro later returned to Tuskeegee University in 1968 to chair the Department of Home Economics and Food Administration, and concluded her career as a professor in the Department of Nutrition at Georgia State University (1980–1989). She was a highly respected teacher and researcher, and published over 20 papers on the availability of essential amino acids from food.

Prothro received many fellowships and grants during her research career. She was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development, the first woman and the first African-American on the board. In 2003, she was awarded an honorary degree by Spelman College for her research leadership and community activities. An award in her name is offered by Georgia State University.

During her time in Chicago, she married Charles E. Prothro, with whom she had a daughter. She died of cancer on June 6, 2009 in Decatur, Georgia.