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Editorials/Columns
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Behind Hidden Figures And More
eeing the movie Hid-
den Figures leaves you wanting to know more not only about the lives of the three Black women high- lighted in the film, Kather- ine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jack- son, but the lives of other Black women who pioneered the space industry as well.
Featured as part of a group of Black women who calculated complicated equa- tions that were instrumental in planning the space flights of Astronauts John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, and Alan Shepard, these women were highly educated in the fields of mathematics and computers.
While Katherine John- son’s role (played by actress Taraji P. Henson) was piv- otal to the movie, Dorothy Vaughn (played by actress Octavia Spencer) was the first Black woman to be hired at NASA’s (National Aero- nautics and Space Adminis- tration) Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in 1943 during World War II.
She specialized in calcula- tions for flight paths, the Scout Project and FORTRAN computer programming and became NASA’s first Black supervisor.
Vaughn graduated from Wilberforce University at age 19 with a major in Mathe-
matics and briefly taught school. She was the mother of six children, one of whom also later worked for NASA. Born in 1910, Vaughn was the eldest of the three women and died at the age of 98.
Mary Jackson (played by Janelle Monae) was the second of the three women to be hired by NASA in 1951 as a Mathematician. She was born in Hampton, Virginia in 1921 and died at the age of 83 in 2005.
She earned a degree in Mathematics and Physical Science from Hampton Insti- tute, taught school for a year, and held other jobs for nine years before joining NASA. Upon completing graduate- level courses, Jackson was promoted to the position of Aerospace Engineer, becom- ing NASA’s first Black female engineer.
Her job included analyz- ing “data from wind tunnel experiments and real-world aircraft flight experiments at the Theoretical Aerodynam- ics Branch of the Subsonic- Transonic Aerodynamic Division” at Langley. Jack- son was the mother of two children and retired in 1985.
Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) gradu- ated from West Virginia State College with highest honors in 1937. As a child
prodigy, Katherine gradu- ated from high school at age 14 and entered college.
Her first job was as a teacher until 1953 when she was hired by NASA and pro- moted because of her knowl- edge of Analytical Geometry. Johnson calculated the tra- jectories for many NASA missions, including Apollo, Mercury, and the 1969 moon landing.
The mother of three daughters, Johnson, like Mary Jackson, was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., served as a Girl Scout leader and sang in her church choir. She authored 25 scientific pa- pers, received the Presiden- tial Medal of Freedom in 2015, and recently was hon- ored to have the Computa- tional Research Facility in Hampton, Virginia dedicated in her name on September 17, 2017.
These women have all given Black children role models that proved Mathe- matics and Science are just as natural to them as foot- ball, tennis, basketball, and other sports.
Perhaps, we can look for- ward to a movie in the near future about another hidden figure, Claudia Alexander (1959—2015) who was the Planetary Scientist and Man- ager of NASA’s Galileo Mis- sion to Jupiter.
I will share information on Claudia Alexander in a future column. In the mean- time, encourage your chil- dren to take Math and Science in school. By the way, I was a Mathematics and Science major in college. So, I know wherefore I speak. Harrambee.
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Silence, Sit, Stand, Or Kneel?
s holdovers from the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and
80s, there are still Black senior citizens who do not utter the words, “indivisible with liberty and justice for all” when they salute the flag as a reminder that America has yet to live up to the promise of its pledge of allegiance. Thus, when other Americans are silent, sit, stand, or kneel during the flag salute, the Black sen- ior citizens understand where they are coming from.
Many of our sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandfathers, grandmothers, and other relatives fought and died for this country since the beginning days of America, fight- ing for the justice and freedom they were denied upon their return home from foreign wars.
Silence, sitting, or kneeling, therefore, in no way says we Black Americans do not love our country. Rather, these acts say “America, you still have not lived up to your pledge of liberty and justice for all.”
It says, “even though we fought and died in every American war, and conflict for America, we are still treated as 3/5ths human.” It says, “Our ancestors fought for the right for me to stand silently, sit silently, or kneel silently instead of reciting a “lie” which mil- lions of Americans fight daily to deny Black Americans.
Indeed, when America changes, more Black people will stand instead of sitting and kneeling. Meanwhile, we patiently await the day when America delivers “lib- erty and justice for all.”
Therefore, our silence, sitting, or kneeling is not done out of hatred or disrespect, but symbolizes an even greater love and belief that if it so chooses, this na- tion can still be the land for which our forefathers pledged both blood and allegiance.
Middleton-Blake Classic Tickets On Sale At Both Schools
Tickets for Tampa’s Middleton-Blake High School Heritage Classic Football Game at Middle- ton Friday October 6, 2017, now are on sale at both schools.
Middleton High School will sell tickets to the public 3:30-4:30 p. m. Tuesday through Friday this week in front of the school’s administration building at N. 22nd Street and Osborne Avenue. The public can purchase tickets at Blake High School (North Boulevard at Main Street) in the ticket booth located next to James “Big Jim” Williams Football Stadium. Tickets will be sold at
Middleton’s Abe Brown Stadium ticket booth the day of the game, Friday October 6, 2017.
For more information, call Middleton High School at (813) 233-3360 or Blake High School
at (813) 272-3422,
A crowd of 3,000 is projected for the game and fans are encouraged to arrive at Middleton’s
Abe Brown Stadium at 6 p. m. Pre-game ceremonies begin at 6:45 p. m. with solos by Blake Alum Willie “Popsie” Walker and by Middleton graduate Janice Nunn-Nelson. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn will declare before the game that both Middleton and Blake are LEGACY SCHOOLS: beginning in 1934 (Middleton), 1945 (Don Thompson High School) and 1956 (Blake High School) educated African American students when segregation prevented them from at- tending other public schools.
Middleton and Blake closed in 1971 as high schools. Blake High School reopened in 1997 and Middleton High School was reestablished in 2002. Mayor Buckhorn has declared that October 6, 2017 is “Middleton-Blake Heritage Day” in the City of Tampa.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5
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