Meet Mary Golda Ross, the first Native American aerospace engineer. (1908-2008) She learned to read at 3, listening to her father teach her older sister. But it was arithmetic that rocketed this woman into the history books! More basic, it was the Cherokee commitment to equal opportunity education at a time when most girls were not expected to go to college or have a career outside the home. Mary was born in Oklahoma on her parents allotment in the foothill the Ozarks. Her great-great-grandfather was a Cherokee Chief, who lead his people over the Trail of Tears. "Even in the days before women's liberation, the role of Cherokee women has never been a subservient one," Mary said. "Women held high positions in early Cherokee tribal councils, where their advice was heeded not only on matters of policy, but also concerning war strategy." Mary graduated from high school at 16, and teacher's college at 18. Teaching high school and taking college classes during the summer, Mary earned a master's degree in mathematics. "[I] didn’t mind being the only girl in math class. Math, chemistry and physics were more fun to study than any other subject,” Mary said. "I sat on one side of the room and the guys on the other side of the room. I guess they didn’t want to associate with me. But I could hold my own with them, and sometimes did better.” When WWII broke out, the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation was looking for mathematicians to help resolve problems with the P-38 Lightning fighter plane. Mary applied and was hired. The P-38 could climb and it doubled as an long-range threat, carrying a larger payload than early B-17s with a range of 1,150 miles. But in a dive, the fighter could destabilize resulting in the deaths of a test pilot and an undetermined number of men who flew the aircraft in combat. Part of a team working in secrecy, Mary helped fix issues with the P-38 and went on to a career at Lockheed. She was one of the founding members of Skunk Works, a super-secret think tank that became Lockheed Missiles & Space Co, and worked with NASA on the Apollo program, the Polaris reentry vehicle, and interplanetary space probes. Much of the work of that Lockheed group, including theories and papers by Ross, remain classified. In the early 1960s, Mary told a reporter she believed women would make great astronauts. But she said, “I’d rather stay down here and analyze the data.” She offered some great advice for young women, “To function efficiently, you need math. The world is so technical, if you plan to work in it, a math background will let you go farther and faster.” One of Mary's accomplishments was as an author of the NASA Planetary Flight Handbook Vol. III dealing with space travel to Mars and Venus. After retiring in 1973, Mary worked to recruit young women and Native American youth into engineering careers. Though she once mentioned one of her few regrets was spending so much of her life apart from Indian people, upon her death, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chad Smith said, “The accomplishments of Mary Golda Ross epitomize the Cherokee spirit. Her ambition and successes exemplify the importance of education and are evidence of the doors that can be opened through higher learning.” Mary Golda Ross died in 2008 at 100 years of age. Now don't you think she deserves a movie about her? Reminder: I'm giving away copies of Fannie Never Flinched in celebration of Women's History Month. And that's not all! Find out all about the prizes and how to enter here...
I'm giving away three copies of Fannie Never Flinched in celebration of Women's History Month.
And that's not all! Find out all about the prizes and how to enter here...
If Fannie Sellins were alive today, where do you think you'd find her? My guess is she'd be working along side Ai-Jen Poo.
Four years ago, Newsweek named Ai-Jen to it's 150 Fearless Women list. TIME called her one of 100 Most Influential People in the World. What does she do? Something many people said couldn't be done. In 2000, she started organizing domestic workers, mostly women, who work in homes carrying for the young and the elderly, cooking and cleaning. Ai-Jen brought together workers spread out over many private homes, co-founding Domestic Workers United in New York City. Her work led to the New York State Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, passed in 2010, it guaranteed domestic workers lawful rights to vacation and overtime pay. Under Ai-Jen's leadership the union grew into the National Domestic Workers Alliance and expanded operations across the country. Like Fannie Sellins, Ai-Jen is motivated by compassion... "I often compare great campaigns to great love affairs because they’re an incredible container for transformation."
But Ai-Jen is no push-over. "...when we’re trying to transform a fundamentally unequal society...there’s a level of discomfort and conflict that has to happen in order for us to achieve a more loving fate.” She says domestic workers are up for the fight.
Marking #DayWithoutAWoman, International Women's Day, March 8, thousands of domestic workers from across the nation skipped work, dressed in red and rallied in the streets.
Skipping a day of work means a huge hit to the household budget of low wage workers, and they risk being fired, but domestic workers in America have a history of taking risks like this, Ai-jen Poo wrote for CNN.com.
In 1881, black washerwomen went on strike in Atlanta and nearly shut down the entire city. Despite losing wages, being arrested and fined for “disorderly conduct” the women stayed off the job for weeks. Standing their ground they won better pay, more autonomy in their work and inspired other low wage workers to strike. Ai-Jen says many immigrant members of the Domestic Workers Alliance have already risked their lives fleeing poverty, violence and war to bring their children to the U.S., and in the current political climate, simply walking their children to school or going to the grocery store they risk getting caught and deported. Ai-Jen's suggests. "Let's keep asking the question: 'How can I be more courageous in what I commit to, to match what's at stake?'" "How can I be more courageous
Fannie Sellins were alive today, she'd be asking us to consider the same challenge. Fannie would be right at home with Ai-Jen Poo and the women and men of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
I've written a lot about the courage of American World War II nurses, but this week I discovered the heroism of a Canadian nurse, and learned the story of her valiant effort to save a friend after a torpedo attack by the Germans. I also discovered how taking a step or two out of my comfort zone can generate courage, and I witnessed an amazing step toward peace and reconciliation. It was quite a week after last week's violence combined with my historical photo research. In ten years as a television news reporter I attended scores of demonstrations. Often when there was a protest, there were protesters protesting the protest. Never once did I see the two sides come together as I did last week at Spokane, Washington's #BlackLivesMatter rally. But that's what's happening in this photo. An African American pastor asked the crowd to stop reacting to a heckler, then invited the heckler up for a hug. Later, the head of the local NAACP offered the protester the mic and him speak, while the crowd listened respectfully. Before the end of the rally, those who came to say #BlackLivesMatter, walked to police headquarters and gathered at the memorial for fallen police officers. With a moment of silence and a prayer they demonstrated #BlueLivesMatter, too. The spirit of the rally moved me. I found myself in tears several times as speakers talked of justice, and of healing divisions, of valuing all lives, of ending violence and working toward understanding. I came away empowered, empowered not to be silent in the face of trouble, but also, not to be strident and not to be judgmental. Opportunity immediately presented itself! Empowered not to be silent in the face of trouble, but also, not to be strident and not to be judgmental. Isn't it funny how that is? This week my personal life offered me the chance to climb down off my high horse, lay down my sword and shield and make the first move toward dialogue. Yes, it was scary. I was afraid I might makes things worse. I was afraid I might get hurt. But at the rally, I had joined the chant silence is consent to the status quo. And I found myself braver than I ever knew I could be. Which brings me to Canadian WWII Nurse Margaret Brooke and the fact that sometimes you can summon your greatest courage and still fail in your task. When the German torpedo slammed against the passenger ferry, the SS Caribou, in the early morning darkness of October 14, 1942, Margaret and Nurse Agnes Wilke were asleep in their bunks. Margaret and Agnes made it to the deck, but their life boat was gone. The ship, crossing Cabot Strait off the coast of Newfoundland, sank in just five minutes, taking the women into the water. "We were just busy staying afloat until an overturned lifeboat came along and the people on that helped us," Margaret said later. They grasped ropes, "and we just hung there."
It would be nearly two hours before rescuers arrived, and before then Agnes' strength collapsed. With one arm Margaret clung tight for her survival, and with the other she held onto her friend. "I held her as long as I could," Margaret says. "I failed. I couldn't hold her any longer." Agnes slipped into the cold depths, one of 137 passengers and crew to die that night. For her selfless act, Margaret Brooke was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire, and the Royal Canadian Navy has named an offshore patrol boat after her. Okay, I'm not saying I'm a hero like Margaret Brooke, far from it. What I'm saying is that whether it's a large step or a small one, when we venture from our comfort zone, we risk failure. And often there's a lot of failure before big change is achieved. But no matter how small, every successful step toward dialogue moves us closer to peace. Small steps also give us hope and strengthen us to take big ones. I've been doing photo research for my upcoming book about African American women in the 1940's, and the racial prejudice they suffered while serving in the United States Army. The lynching of blacks was a fact of life for these women, and though it happened mostly in the south, blacks were lynched in northern states, too. I'd been putting off choosing a photo for this part of the story, but finally had to face the images and they left me depressed for days. Especially after stumbling across a new study that documents the number of lynchings in America is 700 more than previously believed. Titled Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror, the report says 3,959 lynchings of African-Americans took place from 1877 to 1950 in states across the South. I'll spare you the images, but take a look at this bit of my research. An African American in the Women's Army Corp spent a week in the hospital being beaten by a civilian cop for sitting in white waiting room at the bus station in Elizabethtown, KY. The cop smashed Private Helen Smith over the head with a blackjack, dragged her across the bus station floor and threw her in the town jail. When she was handed over to military police at Fort Knox, she was ordered to face court martial for disorderly conduct and disobeying Kentucky Jim Crow laws. Two other WACs, beaten less severely were similarly charged. The three service women were eventually aquitted when NAACP lawyers argued Kentucky didn't actually have Jim Crow laws written in the books. The civilian cop faced no repercussions in the case. The news of two black men killed by police this week and at least four police officers shot to death overnight has added to my very heavy heart. People have very strong feelings on both sides of this issue, but I wish we could create a safe space to talk about violence in America. Since writing the adaption of IRENA'S CHILDREN last year, I've been much more tuned into Polish history, and the atrocities Poland suffered under the Nazis. This week I stumbled across some haunting color photographs taken by Adolf Hitler's personal photographer, Hugo Jaeger, in occupied Poland in 1939 and 1940. They are heart-breaking, but I looked at each nameless person and envisioned them beyond the photograph--as flesh and blood, with loved ones, with a life of joys and struggles-- all cut short by the Nazi regime. See the photos here, in a piece called The Brink of Oblivion. Does remembering the victims move us closer to peace? I don't know. But it's something. Click here to check out an interactive database with information
on police killings in the last eighteen months. There's tons of information, and you can decide for yourself what you think. Police have a dangerous job. They are often on calls where they fear for their lives.They are human and vulnerable to mistakes when they have to make split-second decisions. Here you can see the honor roll of law enforcement officers killed this year. Information, talking and listening don't kill anyone. Let's give it a try. Remember Jessica Lynch? The first American POW to be rescued alive since World War II. Blond, blue-eyed, and first-ever female POW. What about the name Shoshana Johnson? That name ring a bell? I was shocked to discover Shoshana was captured POW the same time as Jessica, but not rescued for another 13-days. Oh, and she's black, the first U.S. African American female POW. Below Shosana is being interviewed while in captivity in Iraq, March, 2003. By the time Shoshana came home, the army and news media had made Jessica Lynch an American hero, the girl-next-door who'd been shot and stabbed and still kept firing. Actually, she was hurt in a Humvee crash and her gun jammed before she could get off a shot. Lori Piestewa. Recognize that name? She was there with Jessica Lynch. She was captured, too! But Lori died in captivity. The first American woman to die in Iraq, the first-ever Native American woman to die in combat outside the U.S. (Below: Lori Piestewa-day she deployed to Iraq) Lori, a Hopi, was the mother of two children. The name Hopi means "Peaceful People" and when the U.S. Cavalry occupied their ancestral lands, the Hopi with stayed true, offering nonviolent resistance. Lori believed in peace, but the army offered a good job when she had few options. It was a chance to build a better life for her children. Jessica and Lori had become friends in basic training. They grew even closer when they were assigned to the 507th Maintenance Company as roommates at Fort Bliss. When the 507th got orders to the Middle East, Lori was not on the list to go because of an injury. Jessica's job as a quartermaster supply clerk was not a combat position, but she was nervous about heading to a war zone. Lori had a premonition that Jessica or someone else in her unit would get into danger in Iraq, and she wanted to be there to help. She convinced her superiors to add her to the list for deployment. Three days into the war-- disaster struck. A U.S. Army investigation blamed the ambush of the 507th on navigational and human error, lack of rest and communication problems. Eleven soldiers died and nine were injured. The unit had been on its way to Baghdad, the tail end of a 600-vehicle convoy. It’s heavier, slower vehicles bogged down in the sand, fell behind and got lost. After wandering through the desert for hours, the support group of clerks, repairmen and cooks took a wrong turn and stumbled into the city of Nasiriyah. They were surrounded and attacked by paramilitary forces loyal to Saddam Hussein. Here, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Curney Russell provides a steady arm for Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson after she and four male POWs were rescued in April 2003, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
Shoshana Johnson and Jessica Lynch still suffer from their physical and psychological wounds. In Shoshana's case, the army initially refused to treat her PTSD. Lori Piestewa's family was comforted to hear, like Jessica, she never fired her gun during the ambush. Lori died a Hopi, trying to help a friend. Click here for the memorial fund for Lori Ann Piestewa's children. Scroll to the bottom of page 3. U.S. military recruiters target people with few options for education and employment. They sign up black women in numbers highly disproportionate to white women. In Iraq and Afghanistan African American women have also died in higher numbers. Do black and brown lives matter? |
I'm fascinated to discover little-known history, stories of people and events that provide a new perspective on why and how things happened, new voices that haven't been heard, insight into how the past brought us here today, and how it might guide us to a better future.
I also post here about my books and feature other authors and their books on compelling and important historical topics. Occasionally, I share what makes me happy, pictures of my garden, recipes I've made, events I've attended, people I've met. I'm always happy to hear from readers in the blog comments, by email or social media. Archives
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