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educational inequality, our                   changing world. In January                    opening doors and blazed
               sisters volunteered. The                      of our senior year, many of                   the trail for others.

               election of Richard Hatcher                   us headed out to the Atlanta                  At the Forefront, Ushering
               and Carl Stokes in 1968 and                   schools for our student                       in the Computer Ageby
               Maynard Jackson in 1973 as                    teaching experiences.                         Cynthia A. Lemon

               the first black mayors of                     Spelman students were
               major cities sparked a                        assigned to newly integrated                  Obtaining my initial job at
               greater interest in electoral                 schools where there were                      Bell Labs upon graduation

               campaigns on the local,                       few, if any black teachers.                   was key to my personal,
               state and national levels.                    The summer of 1968,                           technical and academic
               Shirley Chisolm was elected                   classmates in math and                        development. Jettye Hasben
               the first black woman to the                  science students were                         Dash, Pamela Vaughn and I

               U.S. Congress in 1968 and                     selected to work as interns                   became the first black
               ran for President in 1972.                    in corporate settings such as                 women to participate in the
               Not only were we front and                    IBM, Bell Laboratories.                       Lab’s graduate study

               center in Voter Registration                  Implementation of the Civil                   program (GSP) and attain
               Drives, and social action                     Rights laws and anti-                         the Member of Technical
               campaigns, but a few of us                    discrimination laws during                    Staff title .AT&T Bell
               actually were appointed or                    our college years meant that                  Laboratories and Bell

               elected to office.                            new career opportunities                      Telephone Laboratories was
                                                             were available to us.                         an industrial research and
               As we witnessed the                                                                         scientific development
               changes taking place within                   Graduate and professional                     company, the predecessor

               Spelman’s gates, little did                   schools were eagerly                          of Nokia Labs. The 1970s
               we know that we were being                    recruiting.   The Class of                    and 1980s saw more and
               prepared to enter a rapidly                   1969 took advantage of the
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