Born on October 17, 1956, Mae Jemison was raised in Chicago. She excelled in school and graduated from high school at age 16. She then attended Stanford University on a scholarship and graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an Associate Bachelor degree in African and Afro-American Studies. Dr. Mae then attended medical school at Cornell University and joined the Peace Corps after graduating, where she served for two years in West Africa as a medical doctor and an engineer.

Returning to the United States, she practiced medicine in Los Angeles. However, she couldn’t abandon her childhood dream of someday exploring space. In 1987, Dr. Mae was among the 15 candidates accepted to the NASA training program. Dr. Mae was the first African American woman to be admitted for astronaut training. When her training was completed, she officially achieved the title of Science Mission Specialist. On board the Endeavor in 1992, Dr. Mae became the first African-American woman to go to space, and conducted a variety of scientific experiments, logging 190 hours in space.

Now, Dr. Mae serves as Founder and Director of The Jemison Group where she works on projects related to science and technology. She is also Founder and President of BioSentient Corporation, where is involved with cutting-edge medical technology projects. She also founded an international science camp for students aged 12-16 called The Earth We Share.

[Click here] to visit an interactive website for kids about Mae Jemison.

Born in Malvern, Pennsylvania in 1927, Hazel Johnson was one of seven children and grew up on her father’s farm. When she was 12, she met a nurse and vowed she would one day join the profession. Hazel’s dream came true when she relocated to New York in 1947, where she attended the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing.

As a nurse with the Philadelphia Veteran’s Hospital, colleagues recognized her leadership abilities and encouraged her to join the newly desegregated Armed Forces. In 1955, Hazel joined the U.S. Army. Between 1963 and 1967, she served as an operating room supervisor and instructor at three different U.S. Army hospitals. While in the Army, Hazel earned a Bachelor’s degree in nursing from Villanova, a Master’s degree in nursing education from Columbia and a Ph.D. in education administration from Catholic University.

She also served as Chief of the Army Nurse Corps, commanding 7,000 female and male nurses. She crafted policies and supervised hundreds of surgical operations in eight Army medical centers, 56 hospitals, and 143 clinics in various countries. By the mid-1970s, Hazel was a Colonel and the highest ranking African-American female in the Armed Services. She earned the position of General in 1979 and retired from the Army four years later.

Hazel also served as a professor of nursing at Georgetown and later at George Mason. She also co-founded the Center for Health Policy and was instrumental in engaging nurses in healthcare policy.

Hazel Johnson passed away on August 5, 2011 in Washington, D.C. at the age of 84.


After earning a BA in English from Howard University and a Master of Arts in English from Cornell University, Toni Morrison went on to work as an editor at The Random House in New York City.  While at Random House, Morrison was instrumental in infusing diverse women authors into popular literature, editing books by Toni Cade Bambara, Angela Davis, and Gayl Jones. Morrison left Random House and began teaching English at Howard University where she became interested in writing creative fiction.  Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was written while working and raising two children as a single mother.

Morrison’s novel Sula was nominated for the National Book Award in 1973 followed by her third novel, Song of Solomon in 1977 which won the National Book Critics Circle Award.  In 1987, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the American Book Award for her novel, Beloved.  Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.  Still one of the most acclaimed American authors, Morrison continues to stand up for her convictions and pave the way for writers of every gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background.