Mae Jemison was the first African American female astronaut. Although she was born on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, she always considered Chicago to be her real hometown. When she was only three years old, she moved to Chicago and attended Morgan Park High School. She graduated from Morgan Park as an honor student, with the full intent of becoming a biomedical engineer. Throughout Jemison’s whole elementary and high school experience people constantly told her that her dreams of becoming a female scientist were unrealistic. As a black woman, she struggled to achieve equality inside the classroom and outside. She said, ‘Some teachers would just pretend I wasn’t there. I would ask a question and a teacher would act as if it was just so dumb, the dumbest question he had ever heard. Then, when a white guy would ask the same question, the teacher would say, ‘That’s a very astute observation.’ (Rediff, 2011)

      Despite the negativity surrounding her, Jemison persevered and was able to attend Stanford University on a National Achievement scholarship and graduated in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. Afterwards, she went on to study at Cornell University’s Medical College and had the opportunity to study abroad in places like Cuba and Kenya; she even worked on a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand. After completing her medical training, Jemison joined the Peace Corps and served as a Medical Officer. Jemison was responsible for the health of the Peace Corps volunteers who served in Liberia and Sierra Leone. She also used her medical background to work with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) where she helped with research pertaining to vaccines (Thompson 2005).

       After the flight of Sally Ride in 1983, Mae Jemison felt that the astronaut program was more accepting and open towards women so she applied. Her inspiration to join NASA came from African American actress Nichelle Nichols who played Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek. Jemison’s involvement with NASA was delayed after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, but she reapplied in 1987 and received news of her acceptance into the astronaut program. Jemison was honored, as she was one of fifteen candidates chosen out of roughly 2,000 applicants.

Before her shuttle launch, Mae Jemison worked with NASA in launch support activities at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and helped with the verification of shuttle computer software in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL). After completing her training she was named the science mission specialist; she was responsible for conducting crew-related scientific experiments on the space shuttle. Shortly after, Mae Jemison became the first African American woman to be in space on September 12, 1992 when she flew as a Mission Specialist with six other astronauts on the Endeavour (Biography.com Editors 2015). On the mission, Jemison was a co-investigator of two bone cell research experiments, one of 43 investigations that were done on STS-47. Jemison also conducted experiments on weightlessness and motion sickness on herself and six other crew members.  

Traveling to space was an amazing experience for Jemison, as she was finally living out her dream. On the space flight she said “The first thing I saw from space was Chicago, my hometown,” said Jemison. “I was working on the middeck where there aren’t many windows, and as we passed over Chicago, the commander called me up to the flight deck. It was such a significant moment because since I was a little girl I had always assumed I would go into space,” she added. Although her mission only lasted eight days, it was a monumental moment in American history.  

Since then, Jemison has gone on to publish a children’s book titled Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments From My Life. She also founded her own company, The Jemison group, a firm that researches, develops, and sells advanced technology.  Looking at how much Jemison has contributed to the world, she proves to be an inspirational leader and a historian who took a big step by being the first black woman in space.

Sources

Biography.com Ediors. “Mae C. Jemison.” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Feb. 2017. <http://www.biography.com/people/mae-c-jemison-9542378#first-african-american-female-astronaut>.

“Measure success by the obstacles you overcome.” Rediff. N.p., 29 Mar. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

Thompson. Gale. “Jemison, Mae C. 1957–.” Contemporary Black Biography.Encyclopedia.com. 2005. Web.18 Feb. 2017 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-47.html

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4716403_Shuttle_Avionics_Integration_Laboratory