Today in Black History: June 6th
1939 – Marian Wright Edelman Is Born
Marian Wright Edelman, born on June 6 in South Carolina, attended Spelman College in Atlanta (B.A., 1960) and Yale University Law School (LL.B., 1963). After registering African American voters in Mississippi, she moved to New York City as a staff attorney for the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) becoming the first African-American woman to pass the bar in Mississippi.
In 1971, Edelman was the director of Harvard University’s Center for Law and Education, and in 1973, she founded and became president of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) in Washington, D.C.
Some of Edelman’s publications are Children Out of School in America: A Report (1974), Portrait of Inequality: Black and White Children in America (1980), Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change (1987), The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours (1992), and Guide My Feet: Meditations and Prayers on Loving and Working for Children (1995). Her honors include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1985) and several humanitarian awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings. Although Edelman stepped down from the CDF, she still continues to publish today!
1987 – Mae Jemison Is Chosen for NASA
Mae C. Jemison, born on October 17, 1956 in Alabama, spent much of her time in libraries reading about all she could get her hands on. Mae graduated high school with honors and entered Stanford University and graduated in 1977 with a degree in chemical engineering and African American studies.
Jemison then attended Cornell University’s medical school graduating in 1981. During her time at Cornell, she volunteered in a Thai refugee camp and took part in health studies in Kenya and later became a Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa, taking part in various research projects for the vaccines for hepatitis B and rabies.
Jemison decided she wanted to be an astronaut and on June 6, 1987 she joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program. In September of 1992, she became the first African American woman in space during her flight on the STS-47, Spacelab-J, logging 190 hours, 30 minutes and 23 seconds in space. She resigned from NASA in 1993.Mae Jemison is currently the director of the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in developing countries.
