Asa

Asa, in the Bible, king of Judah, son and successor of Abijah. He was a good king, zealous in his extirpation of idols. When Baasha of Israel took Ramah (a few miles N of Jerusalem), Asa bought the help of Benhadad of Damascus and recaptured Ramah. His son Jehoshaphat succeeded him.

Whitney, Asa, 1797-1872, American merchant and transcontinental railroad projector, b. North Groton, Conn. He entered the mercantile business in New York City, acted as a foreign buyer for several years, and then was (1842-44) a merchant in China. Upon his return, he toured (1844-51) the United States, carrying on an extensive publicity campaign urging the construction of a railroad from Chicago to the Pacific; he also petitioned (1845) Congress to support his plan. Whitney's proposed route from Lake Michigan through South Pass to the Pacific was not accepted mainly because of the growing sectionalism before the Civil War. He also presented to the British in 1851 an unsuccessful plan for a Canadian transcontinental railroad. He retired in 1852, a decade before the U.S. Congress passed an act for the construction of a transcontinental railroad. He wrote National Railroad Connecting the Pacific (1845) and A Project for a Railroad to the Pacific (1849).

Gray, Asa, 1810-88, one of America's leading botanists and taxonomists, b. Oneida co., N.Y. As professor of natural history at Harvard from 1842, he was the teacher of many eminent botanists. Through his voluminous writings in periodicals and his well-known textbooks, he helped popularize the study of botany. With John Torrey he explored the W United States and helped to revise the taxonomic procedure of Linnaeus on the basis of a more natural classification. Gray's Manual of Botany was edited by M. L. Fernald (8th centennial ed. 1950); it is a standard reference work for the flora of the United States E of the Rocky Mts. He initiated the quarterly Gray Herbarium Card Index, listing all the vascular plants of the Western Hemisphere described since 1873. Among his many other writings, which are still highly valued, are Structural Botany (6th ed. 1879) and The Elements of Botany (1887).

(born April 15, 1889, Crescent City, Fla., U.S.—died May 16, 1979, New York, N.Y.) U.S. civil-rights leader. He was the son of a Methodist minister. In 1911 he moved to New York, where he cofounded the journal The Messenger (later Black Worker), in which he called for more positions for African Americans in the war industry and the armed forces. In 1925 he founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African American trade union, and he served as its president until 1968. In 1941 he lobbied Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt to ban racial discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus. In 1948 he influenced Pres. Harry Truman to bar racial segregation in the armed forces. In 1955 he was made a vice president of the newly combined AFL-CIO. In order to combat discrimination in that union, he formed the Negro American Labor Council in 1960.

Learn more about Randolph, A(sa) Philip with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 18, 1810, Sauquoit, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 30, 1888, Cambridge, Mass.) U.S. botanist. He received a medical degree from Fairfield Medical School, where he spent his spare time studying plant specimens. He collaborated with John Torrey (1796–1873) on Flora of North America (1838–43) and in 1842 joined the faculty at Harvard University, where he would teach until 1873. His donation of his thousands of books and plant specimens established Harvard's botany department. Gray was largely responsible for the unification of the taxonomic knowledge of the North American flora; his most widely used book, commonly called Gray's Manual (1848), remains a standard work. He was the chief early American supporter of the theories of Charles Darwin.

Learn more about Gray, Asa with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 15, 1889, Crescent City, Fla., U.S.—died May 16, 1979, New York, N.Y.) U.S. civil-rights leader. He was the son of a Methodist minister. In 1911 he moved to New York, where he cofounded the journal The Messenger (later Black Worker), in which he called for more positions for African Americans in the war industry and the armed forces. In 1925 he founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African American trade union, and he served as its president until 1968. In 1941 he lobbied Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt to ban racial discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus. In 1948 he influenced Pres. Harry Truman to bar racial segregation in the armed forces. In 1955 he was made a vice president of the newly combined AFL-CIO. In order to combat discrimination in that union, he formed the Negro American Labor Council in 1960.

Learn more about Randolph, A(sa) Philip with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 18, 1810, Sauquoit, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 30, 1888, Cambridge, Mass.) U.S. botanist. He received a medical degree from Fairfield Medical School, where he spent his spare time studying plant specimens. He collaborated with John Torrey (1796–1873) on Flora of North America (1838–43) and in 1842 joined the faculty at Harvard University, where he would teach until 1873. His donation of his thousands of books and plant specimens established Harvard's botany department. Gray was largely responsible for the unification of the taxonomic knowledge of the North American flora; his most widely used book, commonly called Gray's Manual (1848), remains a standard work. He was the chief early American supporter of the theories of Charles Darwin.

Learn more about Gray, Asa with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Asa may refer to:

• Asa of Judah, son of Abijam, King of Judah.
• Asa, Nigeria, in Kwara State
• Asa (name), given name
• Asa Dotzler, Mozilla contributor and blogger
• Asa Shigure, character in the Shuffle! media franchise
• Asa Rāga, Indian format of musical rules
• Asa, god of the Kamba ethnic group, Kenya
• Ása, genitive of Æsir, the predominant group among the Norse gods
• Åsa, a Norwegian village
• Asa River, a river in Japan
• Asa, an alternate term for naboot; a staff used in Egyptian stick fencing
• Asa (rapper), a rap artist from Finland; see Finnish hip hop
• Japanese term for Indian hemp
• Asa (singer), Paris-born Nigerian singer-songwriter

See also

• ASA, abbreviation or initialism