WEBVTT - 051124 Way Black History Fact - The First Black Woman in Space

0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:04.480
<v Speaker 1>Right now, it is time for the Way Black History Fact.

0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:07.360
<v Speaker 1>And today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Underground

0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:08.760
<v Speaker 1>Beach Club. From the Streets to the Beach. For the

0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:11.400
<v Speaker 1>latest in beachware, visit Underground Beach club dot com. Today

0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:16.160
<v Speaker 1>we're talking about the first black female astronaut. Doctor May

0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:20.680
<v Speaker 1>Jemison is a physician, as if astronaut wasn't enough, and

0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.360
<v Speaker 1>scientist who in nineteen ninety two became the first black

0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.760
<v Speaker 1>woman astronaut in space. After attending Stanford and Cornell Universities,

0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:30.680
<v Speaker 1>she served as a medical officer in the Peace Corps.

0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:33.680
<v Speaker 1>In June nineteen eighty seven, she achieved a lifelong dream

0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:35.720
<v Speaker 1>when she became the first black woman to be admitted

0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.040
<v Speaker 1>into NASA's astronaut training program. Jemison made history again on

0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:41.880
<v Speaker 1>September twelve, nineteen ninety two, when she flew into space

0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:45.600
<v Speaker 1>aboard the Endeavour on Mission STS forty seven and became

0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:48.960
<v Speaker 1>the first black woman in space. In recognition of her accomplishments,

0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:53.479
<v Speaker 1>Jimison has received several awards and honorary doctorates. Today, she

0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.639
<v Speaker 1>works as a scientist and public speaker. May Carrol Jemison

0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.440
<v Speaker 1>was born on October seventeen, nineteen fifty six and Decatur, Aliba.

0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.240
<v Speaker 1>She's the youngest child of Charlie Jemison, a roofer and carpenter,

0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.920
<v Speaker 1>and Dorothy Jemison, an elementary school teacher. Her sister, Ada

0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:12.680
<v Speaker 1>Jemison Bullock, became a child psychiatrist, and her brother, Charles Jemison,

0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.240
<v Speaker 1>as a real estate broker. When May was three years old,

0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.000
<v Speaker 1>the Jemison family moved to Chicago to take advantage of

0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:21.720
<v Speaker 1>better educational opportunities. Her parents were supportive and encouraging of

0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.480
<v Speaker 1>May's talents and abilities. Throughout her early school years, she

0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.120
<v Speaker 1>spent a considerable amount of time in her school library

0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:32.240
<v Speaker 1>reading all about aspects of science, especially astronomy. Jemison became

0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.440
<v Speaker 1>convinced she wanted to pursue a career in biomedical engineering

0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:39.280
<v Speaker 1>during her time at Morgan Park High School. May graduated

0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.560
<v Speaker 1>in nineteen seventy three as a consistent honor student, then

0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.440
<v Speaker 1>entered Stanford University on a National Achievement scholarship. As she'd

0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.160
<v Speaker 1>been in high school, Jemison was very involved in extra

0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:53.040
<v Speaker 1>curricular activities at Stanford, including dance and theater productions, and

0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.040
<v Speaker 1>served as the head of the Black student Union. That's

0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.040
<v Speaker 1>something that Q and I both did as well, so

0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.160
<v Speaker 1>shout out to everyone who disipated in the BSU, but

0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.360
<v Speaker 1>also the heads all right. She received a bachelor's of

0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:07.560
<v Speaker 1>Science and Chemical Engineering from the university in nineteen seventy seven.

0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:12.040
<v Speaker 1>Jimmison continued her education at Cornell University Medical College. During

0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:14.840
<v Speaker 1>her years there, she found time to expand her horizons

0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.480
<v Speaker 1>by studying in Cuba and Kenya and working at a

0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.640
<v Speaker 1>Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand. She became a Doctor of

0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.080
<v Speaker 1>Medicine in nineteen eighty one. After obtaining her medical degree,

0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:28.680
<v Speaker 1>Jimmison interned at Los Angeles County University of Southern California

0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:33.160
<v Speaker 1>Medical Center, then worked as a general practitioner. Beginning in

0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:35.920
<v Speaker 1>January nineteen eighty three, she was the area Peace Corps

0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:40.400
<v Speaker 1>Medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia. She served in

0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:42.200
<v Speaker 1>the position for two and a half years while also

0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.320
<v Speaker 1>teaching and conducting medical research on projects related to rabies,

0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:58.200
<v Speaker 1>a parasitic disease I'm gonna try, schisto miasis maybe, and

0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.480
<v Speaker 1>a hepatitis B vaccine. Following her return to the United

0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.320
<v Speaker 1>States in nineteen eighty five, Jemison made a career change

0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:06.280
<v Speaker 1>and decided to follow a dream she had nurtured for

0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.760
<v Speaker 1>a long time. That October, she applied for NASA's astronaut

0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.280
<v Speaker 1>training program. The Challenger disaster of January nineteen eighty six

0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.960
<v Speaker 1>delayed the selection process, but when she reapplied a year later,

0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.880
<v Speaker 1>Jemison was one of fifteen candidates chosen from a field

0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.600
<v Speaker 1>of about two thousand. On June fourth, nineteen eighty seven,

0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:23.680
<v Speaker 1>Jimison became the first black woman to would be admitted

0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:26.800
<v Speaker 1>into the NASA Astronaut Training program. After more than a

0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.320
<v Speaker 1>year of training, she became the first black female astronaut,

0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.079
<v Speaker 1>earning the title of Science Mission Specialists. The job made

0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.400
<v Speaker 1>her responsible for conducting crew related scientific experiments on the

0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.200
<v Speaker 1>Space Shuttle. When Jemmison finally flew into space on September

0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.680
<v Speaker 1>twelf nineteen ninety two, with six other astronauts aboard the

0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.119
<v Speaker 1>Endeavor on Mission STS forty seven, she became the first

0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:46.600
<v Speaker 1>black woman in space. During her eight days in space,

0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.760
<v Speaker 1>Jemmison conducted experiments on weightlessness and motion, sickness of the

0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.040
<v Speaker 1>crew and herself, and all. She spent more than one

0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:54.560
<v Speaker 1>hundred and ninety hours in space before returning to Earth

0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:59.600
<v Speaker 1>on September twentieth, nineteen ninety two, So a lot of

0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:01.120
<v Speaker 1>ebony excellence in today's program