Mae C Jemison

1956

Decatur, Alabama, USA

African American

In 1992 she flew into space aboard the Endeavour, becoming the first African American woman in space.

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 child psychiatrist, and her brother, Charles Jemison, is a real estate broker.
The Jemison family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when Jemison was three years old. They wanted to take advantage of better educational opportunities, and it is that city that she calls her home.

After Jemison obtained her MD in 1981 she interned at Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Centre, and later worked as a general practitioner. For the next two and a half years, she was the area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia, where she also taught and carried out medical research.

Following her return to the United States in 1985, Jemison made a career change and decided to follow a dream she had nurtured for a long time.In October 1985 she applied for admission to NASA’s astronaut training programme. The Challenger disaster of January 1986 delayed the selection process, but when she reapplied a year later, Jemison was one of the 15 candidates chosen from a field of about 2,000.

4 June 1987 – Jemison became the first African American woman to be admitted into the NASA astronaut training programme. After more than a year of training, she became the first African American woman astronaut, earning the title of science mission specialist, a job that would make her responsible for conducting crew-related scientific experiments on the space shuttle.
12 September 1992 – Jemison became the first African American woman in space, when she flew into space with six other astronauts aboard the Endeavour on mission STS47. During her eight days in space, Jemison conducted experiments on weightlessness and motion sickness on the crew and herself. She spent more than 190 hours in space before returning to Earth on 20 September 1992. Following her historic flight, Jemison stated that society should recognize how much both women and members of other minority groups can contribute if given the opportunity.

1988 – She received the Essence Science and Technology Award
1990 – She was also named Gamma Sigma Gamma Woman of the Year
1992 – the Ebony Black Achievement Award
1992 – The Mae C. Jemison Academy, an alternative public school in Detroit, Michigan, was named after her
1993 – A Montgomery Fellowship from Dartmouth College
Jemison has been a member of several prominent organisations, including the American Medical Association, the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and she served on the board of directors of the World Sickle Cell Foundation from 1990 to 1992. She has also served as an advisory committee member of the American Express Geography Competition and an honorary board member of the Centre for the Prevention of Childhood Malnutrition

Parents – Charlie Jemison and Dorothy Green
Siblings – Ada Jemison Bullock and Charles Jemison

https://www.biography.com/astronaut/mae-c-jemison

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_Jemison

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mae-jemison

https://kidadl.com/articles/best-mae-jemison-quotes-from-the-first-black-woman-astronaut