Katherine Johnson

Katherine Coleman Johnson

1918-2020

• Birthplace: White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

• Widowed mother of 3 in 1959 remarrying 3 years later

• Mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics and trajectories for NASA were critical to the success of the first US space flight, Apollo 11.

• Author

Katherine Johnson’s intelligence and skill with numbers was recognized when she was a child. She was attending high school at age 10, graduating from West Virginia State College with highest honors. She was one of three African American students to enroll in a graduate program at West Virginia University, ending segregation at that higher level at the institution.

Johnson joined the West Computers unit, a segregated group of women who manually computed data at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. NACA would soon be incorporated into the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958. That same year she became the first Black female engineer at NASA. Her work there analyzing flight paths and orbit trajectories helped send American astronauts to the Moon. She became the first woman in her division to be credited as a research author on orbit trajectories.

In her thirty year career with NASA, Johnson co-authored or authored 26 reports and literally wrote the book on rocket science. One of the first textbooks on space was co-written by Johnson.

Katherine Johnson received numerous awards and honors for her work including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 for her impact on America’s progression as a country.

In 2016 NASA named a building The Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility after her. The same year Margot Lee Shutterly published Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race and a movie titled Hidden Figures was released.

Johnson’s autobiography “My Remarkable Journey” was published posthumously.

Her alma mater annually awards African American students the Katherine Johnson Math Scholarship.

I wanted to include Katherine Johnson in my collection to help keep her from becoming a hidden figure in history...again! NASA claims the stories of the incredible women who worked there were not “hidden” rather just unseen. I‘m not sure if there is a difference.

Creating the glasses for Katherine Johnston was a little challenging. I ended up finding black foam board and using a silver sharpie to draw the design on the frame that I saw in several photos of her. The “glass’ was made using clear heavy plastic. Had to try a few different types so you could still see her eyes through the “lens”. Her hair is made of alpaca wool. Her clothing is made with pre form felt, constructed into a dress. I added a string of pearls.

“Like what you do, and then you will do your best.” – Katherine Johnson

#Blackhistorymonth #Blackhistorymonth2023 #katherinejohnson #hiddenfigures #womenshistory #nasahistory #rocketscientist #thewomen #needlefelt #needlefeltingartist

Sources:

NASA.gov

Biography

Space.com

National Geographic

New York Times

Space.com

Encyclopedia Britannica

Rosa Parks

1913-2005

Birthplace: Tuskegee, Alabama

• Civil Right icon

• Presidential Medal Of Freedom Award

• Author

Rosa Parks was home schooled by her mother until the age of 11. She had to leave secondary school to care for her ailing grandmother. At the encouragement of her husband, she finished her high school classes and achieved her diploma in 1933.

She became active in defending The Scottsboro Boys, a group of Black men who had been falsely accused of raping two white women in 1931. This trial is widely considered the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in the United States.

Parks lived in Alabama during the “Jim Crow” South where voting was made almost impossible for black people. She tried to register three times between 1943 and 1945 having to fill out a difficult questionnaire, a Jim Crow-era voter suppression tactic to keep Black people away from the polls. Prepared to fight for the right to vote legally on her third attempt in 1945 Parks wrote down her answers so she could challenge the registrar who saw her do this and approved her application. On top of the test she had to pay $1.50 each year to be eligible to vote. The “poll tax” was $18 in total (equivalent to $296 dollars today.)

Rosa Parks is known as “The Mother of Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement."

Long before refusing to give up her seat for a white man and being arrested, (prisoner 7053) on December 1, 1955, charged with and convicted of civil disobedience, Parks had fought for desegregation, voting rights, and was an established organizer and leader in the Civil Rights movement. Rosa and her husband were also active members of the League of Women voters.

“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” – Rosa Parks

Convicted and fined $14.00 including court costs. She lost the case on appeal due to a technicality.

Her arrest for refusing to relinquish her seat started the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. A unanimous agreement was made that black people would boycott the buses until fair seating, fair treatment and black drivers were hired. The boycott lasted 381 days. This resulted in 75% loss of riders. Detrimental to the finances of the public bus companies, new laws went into place that ended segregation on public buses. The bus boycott is considered one of the most successful uprisings against racial segregation. Rosa Parks lost her job as a seamstress at a local department store after her arrest. A job she held for seven years.

After the bus boycott, Parks and her husband moved to Hampton, Virginia and later permanently to Detroit, Michigan where her work in the Detroit civil rights movement proved invaluable.

After a life of working to give financially and physically to equality causes she suffered from financial and health troubles. Nearly evicted from her home in Michigan, local community members and churches came together to support this amazing woman.

On October 24th, 2005 at the age of 92, she died of natural causes leaving behind a legacy of resistance against racial discrimination and injustice. Four years after her death, Barack Obama became the 44th and first African American President of the United States.

Some of Rosa Parks' awards and accomplishments:

1979 NAACP awarded Parks with Spingarn Medal their highest honor

1992 Authored "My Story" by Rosa Parks

1996 Recipient – Presidential Medal of Freedom

1999 Named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential figures of the century

2000 The Rosa Parks Library and Museum dedicated at Troy University in Montgomery, Alabama

2005 First woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda

2006 Statue of Rosa Parks placed in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.

To create Rosa Parks I knew I wanted to have her sitting holding her “ arrest number”

I wanted the chair I created to feel like the bus seat she was on. I felted the chair and then applied a heavy coat of wax, having no idea what I was doing but very pleased with the results. Her glasses are wireless in the photo so I used thin wire for frames, wiped gold paint on them and used heavy plastic for the “lens”.

“Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.” – Rosa Parks

Donate: Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation

#blackhistorymonth #rosaparks

#civilrights #thewomen #needlefelting #blackhistorymonth2023#womenofimportance #blackhistorymatters #needlefeltingartist

Sources

History Channel

National Archives

NAACP

Library of Congress

Biography

Encyclopedia Britannica

National Women’s History Museum

Harriet Tubman

1820-22(?)-1913

Birthplace: Dorchester County, Maryland – born into slavery

• Conductor of the Underground Railroad

• Soldier

• Nurse

• Suffrage Activist

• Author

Harriet Tubman was born to Harriet Green and Benjamin Ross. However, her birth name was Araminta Ross.

At age five she was rented out as a domestic servant, at the age of 12 while trying to prevent her enslaver from beating an enslaved man who tried to escape, she was hit on the head with a two pound weight leaving her with lifelong suffering of severe headaches and narcolepsy (decreased ability to regulate sleep-wake cycles).

She became a conductor of the Underground Railroad (which was established in the late 18th century) using the network of anti-slavery activists and safe houses. She personally completed 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people including her family and friends. Tubman became known as the “Moses of her people.”

Tubman would later serve as a scout, spy, guerrilla soldier, and nurse for the Union Army during the American Civil War (1961-1965). During this time she became the first African American woman to serve in the military and first woman to lead a major military operation. Harriet Tubman helped coordinate a military assault that freed more than 700 enslaved people. For this she was buried with military honors.

After the war Tubman raised money to build schools for newly freed people (known as freedom schools). She joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in their quest for women's suffrage. Tubman cared for her elderly parents, worked with writer Sarah Bradford on her two autobiographies Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman and later Harriet Tubman, Moses of Her People. She campaigned for her late husband's military pension which she was finally awarded $8 per month. For her military service she received a pension of and $20 per month in 1899.

In 1896 she established the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged near her home.

Very few women have national park sites dedicated to them. Harriet Tubman has two.

The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Dorchester County, Maryland and The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn, New York.

Beacon Of Hope Harriet Tubman statue Sept 10, 2022 in Cambridge, Maryland.

There is a self-guided driving tour that winds for more than 125 miles through Maryland's Eastern shore then another 98 miles through Delaware. It includes 45 historically significant sites related to the Underground Railroad.

Harriet Tubman will be the first Black person and the first Black woman to appear on the United States paper currency (eventually...definitely by 2030) replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

Just a reminder...women did not get the right to vote until 1919. All of her amazing

accomplishments happened before 1913.

Harriet Tubman, lived a life committed to freedom and dignity for ALL people. Her life story was so utterly brave and powerful.

I loved bringing Harriet Tubman to life. She was the fourth woman I created. It was important to me to be able to capture the depth and character of her face. Finding flesh tones was critical to me, to be able to represent all “The Women” I needle felt. Sarafina Fiber Arts Inc had a wonderful selection of raw wools. The red bandana on her head has each dot individually felted on it.

”Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Alway remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.“ – Harriet Tubman

Sources:

harriettubman.org

battlefields.org

womenshistory.org

History channel

National Women‘s History Museum

#blackhistorymonth #harriettubman #civilrights #thewomen #needlefelting #blackhistorymonth2023 #womenofimportance #blackhistorymatters #conductorundergroundrailroad #needlefeltingartist #sarifinafiberartsinc