Month: February 2021

Eager to encourage greater equality for African Americans, and women, Mary Eliza Mahoney pursued a nursing career that supported these aims. She is noted for becoming the first African American licensed nurse. Mary Eliza Mahoney was born in the spring of 1845 in Boston, Massachusetts. When she was in her teens, Mahoney knew that she wanted to become a nurse, so she began working at the New...

Mae C. Jemison is the first African American female astronaut. In 1992, she flew into space aboard the Endeavour, becoming the first African American woman in space. Jemison was born on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama. She is the youngest child of Charlie Jemison, a roofer and carpenter, and Dorothy (Green) Jemison, an elementary school teacher. Her sister, Ada Jemison Bullock, became a...

Jane Bolin was a trailblazing attorney who became the first African American female judge in the United States, serving on New York's Family Court for four decades. Jane Matilda Bolin was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, on April 11, 1908, to an interracial couple, Matilda Ingram Emery and Gaius C. Bolin. Her father was an attorney who headed the Dutchess County Bar Association and cared for the...

This week’s astonishing example for Black History Month is Kamala D. Harris. Kamala D. Harris is the Vice President of the United States of America. She was elected Vice President after a lifetime of public service, having been elected District Attorney of San Francisco, California Attorney General, and United States Senator. She was born in Oakland, California to parents who emigrated from...