Here’s something I got a few days ago from the BDPA mailing list. It’s one of those articles that doesn’t contain any real surprises, but still makes your jaw drop when you realize what has happened. I’m one of the relatively few African Americans who has a PhD in physics, and I didn’t know this stuff. On the one hand, it saddens me that more black kids aren’t going into science and technology because I enjoy it so much. But on the other hand, career prospects in science and technology aren’t as good as they are in the professions. So who can blame bright kids for preferring to become physicians, lawyers, and business people?
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Black Women in Science & Technology
U.S. Rep. Eddie B. Johnson Pushes Resolution To Support Black Women InScience & TechnologySource: Jet Publication date: 2005-05-23Arrival time: 2005-05-25
Dropping the name of "Katherine Johnson" in a speech on the House ofRepresentatives floor, Texas Rep. Eddie B. Johnson was not surprisedthat few of the lawmakers had ever heard of the Black scientist. Eddie B. Johnson
This was the reason Rep. Johnson introduced a resolution there torecognize the achievements of minorities and women in science andtechnology and encourage a new generation of young women to continue in their legacies.
A physicist, space scientist and mathematician, Katherine Johnson gained a minute in the national glare in 1970 when she was instrumental in formulating calculations that helped the crippled Apollo 13 return home safely. A fuel tank explosion and computer system failure that almost derailed the ship was detailed in Tom Hanks' film, Apollo 13.
"Unfortunately, many young African Americans are unfamiliar with thesefacts, " Rep. Johnson continued in her speech. "Very little literaturedocumerits African-American women and their place in science.
"To increase the numbers of AfricanAmerican youth pursuing science,especially young women, it is critical that we provide them strongscience role models to admire and emulate," she insisted.
She noted African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans as a groupconstitutes 24 percent of the U. S. population but only 7 percent of the total science and technology workforce.
Currently, less than 1 percent employed science engineering doctorateholders are African American, she added.
Identifying the female minority pioneers in this field, the lawmakerdescribed Dr. Ella Moore, the first AfricanAmerican woman to receive adoctorate in natural science in 1933. She received the degree inbacteriology and served as the head of the department at Howard Medical School from 1947 to 1958.
In the field of space exploration, Dr. Mae Jemison, a medical doctor and first Black woman in space, now directs a TV show to promote science among students.
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, according to the lawmaker, was not only thefirst African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) but was also the first Black woman to receive a doctorate in any field from that school.
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