Her Story: Black Women That Made History
These barrier breakers, these trail blazers, these history makers.
They fought sexism, injustice and racism. They stood up and defied norms. They persisted, against all odds, to drive change.
Imagine if every little girl grew up learning history from the life stories of these extraordinary women, they would never doubt their place in the world. This is for her, this is Her Story.
Her Story: Mae Jemison
Mae Jemison is an engineer, physician and NASA astronaut. In 1992 she became the first African-American woman in space, flying aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Jamison was born October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama. She grew up in Chicago and from a young age she assumed she would get into space. She enjoyed science and all types of dance growing up. Jemison graduated from Chicago's Morgan Park High School in 1973 and entered Stanford University at 16 years old! She graduated from Stanford in 1977, receiving a B.S. in chemical engineering. She was also very involved in the black community and served as head of the Black Students Union during her college years.
Jamison obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree in 1981 at Cornell Medical College, she worked as a general practitioner for a short time after her internship. She went on to serve in the Peace Corps from 1985 until 1987, when she was selected by NASA to join the astronaut corps. She now holds nine honorary degrees in science, letters, engineering, and the humanities.
Her Story: Alfreda Johnson Webb (1923-1992)
In 1949 Dr. Alfreda Johnson Webb became the first African-American woman to graduate from veterinary school in the United States.
Webb was born on February 21, 1923 in Mobile, Alabama. She earned a Bachelors Degree from Tuskegee Institute in 1943. When Tuskegee Institute opened it's school of Veterinary Medicine, Webb wondered if they would allow women into the program. She applied and was accepted. She received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) in 1949 making Webb the first woman to graduate from Tuskegee and the first black woman to graduate from a school of veterinary medicine in the United States.
