Patricia Bath
1942 -
This scientist, physician, and inventor is best known for her most well-known invention: the Laserphaco Probe. She was the first African American receive a patent her invention, which creates a less painful and more precise treatment of cataracts. With her invention, Bath was able to help restore the sight of those who had been blind for more than 30 years.
Marie Daly
1921 - 2003
This pioneering scientist was the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry, and her groundbreaking work helped clarify how the human body works.
Carrie Mae Weems, I Looked and Looked to See What so Terrified You, 2006, Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery
Spotlight on…
Zora Neale Hurston
(January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960).
She was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Of Hurston’s four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays, she is best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
"I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions."
— Letter from Zora Neale Hurston to Countee Cullen
(Source: zoranealehurston.com)
Spotlight on…
Alberta King. She was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s mother and the wife of Martin Luther King, Sr. She played a significant role in the affairs of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her father, husband and son all served as pastor. She was shot and killed in the church six years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Alberta King was shot and killed on June 30, 1974 by 23 year-old Marcus Wayne Chenault as she sat at the organ of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Chenault was a deranged gunman from Ohio who stated that he shot King because “all Christians are my enemies.”
Mae Jemison is an American astronaut, physician, and professor, and the first African American woman to enter space in1992. Jemison previously joined the Peace Corps in 1983 and worked as a medical officer in West African until 1985. After retiring from NASA, Jemison started her own constancy company called The Jemison Group, Inc., whose projects include a satellite based telecommunication system to improve health care delivery in West Africa.
