Women's History

[raison de arizona]

All-female Super Bowl flyover team to make history
In a Super Bowl first, an all-female squad will launch Sunday's game.

This Super Bowl Sunday, a group of women will make history.

The flyover before Sunday's game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs at Phoenix's State Farm Stadium will be piloted by an all-female team.

The four female pilots orchestrating the diamond formation will be honoring 50 years of women flying in the U.S. Navy.

"It was surreal," one of the four pilots, Navy Lt. Catie Perkowski, told "Good Morning America" of being selected to pilot the flyover.

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Living/femal ... d=96983944

[Suranis]

https://www.facebook.com/blackwallstree ... mC1ZjgStdl

In 1915, a young black woman made a significant discovery at the University of Hawaii. A few years later the UW alumna passed away and her contribution was forgotten. It took several decades for her name to come up again.

In 1977, University of Hawaii professor Kathryn Takara, Ph.D., was beginning her research on black women in Hawaii when she came across the name of Alice Augusta Ball.

“Bit by bit, I began to uncover information about her,” Takara recalled.

She wasn’t the only one starting to become interested in the young chemist.

Stanley Ali, a retired federal worker, often visited the Hawaiian Islands and stumbled across her story while doing research on blacks in Hawaii. He gained support from UH faculty and students, resulting in a portrait of Ball that now hangs in the Hamilton Library on the university’s campus.

From Ali’s and others’ research, a little bit of Ball’s story has been pieced together.

She was the first black chemistry professor at the UH, where she was encouraged by Dr. Harry H. Hollman, the U.S. public health officer in Hawaii, to find a way to retrieve chaumoogra tree oil, which was known for its healing properties.

She extracted the oil and found that when injected, it relieved some of the symptoms of Hansen’s disease, more commonly known as leprosy.

For centuries, leprosy has attracted a large social stigma. It affects the nerves of the skin and often results in permanent damage to the skin and limbs. Due to the contagious nature of the disease, many societies created leper colonies for the sufferers.

Although not a full cure, Ball’s discovery was a significant marker in the fight against a disease that has plagued nations for thousands of years. The discovery was coined, at least for the time being, the “Ball Method.”

Unfortunately, the Ball Method didn’t last long. A year following her find, Ball became ill and returned to Seattle, dying in 1916 at the age of 24 of unknown causes.
University of Hawaii president, Dr. Arthur Lyman Dean, continued Ball’s research. He became the namesake of the “Dean Method” and was credited with the discovery of chaulmoogra oil.

“She really did all the research,” Takara said. “The Ball Method became his method.”

Dean Hall on the University of Hawaii campus was named after him, and Ball was forgotten.

“The university ignored Alice Ball up until 10 or 12 years ago,” said Miles Jackson, University of Hawaii professor and dean emeritus.

When Takara began her research about Ball, she realized how little information there was about the black scholar.

“I had to dig really hard for it,” she said.

Researchers have not found any diaries or journals that offer clues to the personality of Ball or what drove her to make such a discovery. They can only guess at who she was.

At the very least, Jackson believes Ball was a capable young woman.

“Men dominated higher education in 1915 and Alice Ball was admitted against the odds,” he said. “She must have been a highly motivated woman to return to Hawaii alone, where she had no family.”

Ball was born July 24, 1892 in Seattle. She moved to Oahu in the early 1900s with her family. Both her parents were powerful: Her father, James P. Ball, was a lawyer and editor of a black newspaper while her mother, Laura Ball, was a photographer. James P. Ball Sr., her grandfather, was an abolitionist and a highly regarded photographer whose work was focused on prominent black leaders. It appears Ball was destined to follow in her family’s influential footsteps.

After attending elementary school in Hawaii, Ball and her family moved back to the mainland where she attended high school in Seattle.

She attended the UW after high school and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmaceutical chemistry. Her only mark on the campus from that time is a mention in the 1914 UW yearbook, The Tyee.

After graduating from the UW, Ball returned to Oahu where she attended the College of Hawaii (later the University of Hawaii) as its first graduate student. She was not only the first black student to receive a master’s degree from the institute, but she was also the first black woman to graduate with that distinction.

“In fact, she was unique in America at the time because very few African-American women — and I suspect women in general — were given full access to graduate study in the sciences,” Jackson said. “It also points to a glass ceiling all women faced in America.”

On Feb. 29, 2000, the University of Hawaii honored the accomplished young woman with a plaque by the chaumoogra tree that still stands on campus.

Lt. Governor Mazie Hirono of Hawaii named Feb. 29th “Alice Ball Day.” The chemist is now celebrated every four years.

In 2007, Alice Ball was awarded posthumously with the University of Hawaii’s Regents’ Medal of Distinction.

“It’s quite the prestigious award,” Takara said.

Despite Ball’s recent recognition, many believe that more should be done. Students and faculty alike have talked about renaming Dean Hall to Ball Hall. Takara remains positive that Ball will soon get her due respect.

“I do feel strongly that each year, that local newspapers, the media, will hear more about her,” she said. “She was quite a positive role model.”"

Ball.jpg (24.09 KiB) Viewed 833 times

[Suranis]

https://mastodon.social/@nasa@social.be ... 5264322317

"If she says they're good, then I am ready to go."

Before his 1962 orbital flight, John Glenn was wary of trusting his life to a machine's trajectory calculations and asked that Katherine Johnson check them. #BHM

More on mathematician Katherine Johnson: https://go.nasa.gov/3Ef1sbX
#NASAhistory

https://www.nasa.gov/langley/katherine-johnson

Katherine G. Johnson: A NASA Trailblazer

NASA mathematician, trailblazer in the quest for racial equality, contributor to our nation’s first triumphs in human spaceflight and champion of STEM education, Katherine G. Johnson stands among NASA’s most inspirational figures. Born Aug. 26, 1918, in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, Johnson went on to graduate from West Virginia State College with highest honors in 1937. After attending graduate school and working as a public school teacher, she was hired in 1953 by what today is known as NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, but then was called the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. She retired from the center in 1986. Johnson’s accomplishments at Langley were highlighted in the bestselling book “Hidden Figures,” and the hit movie of the same name.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

N10 honored Arkansas Black Woman Classical Composer with this post:

viewtopic.php?t=138&hilit=Music+Free+Fo ... 25#p172345

[keith]

N10 honored Arkansas Black Woman Classical Composer with this post:

viewtopic.php?t=138&hilit=Music+Free+Fo ... 25#p172345

For Black Women Composers you just cannot go past Mary Lou Williams:

Wikipedia: Mary Lou Williams

Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981[1]) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions).[2] Williams wrote and arranged for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Williams is, IMO, a grossly under acknowledged GIANT of American music.

With ‘Zodiac,’ Mary Lou Williams Spanned Classical and Jazz

I'll put a link to her "Zodiac Suite" on "Music Free For All" but here's an intro by Dizzy Gillespie with selections from The Zodiac Suite:

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Thanks!!! I had not heard of her!

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://apnews.com/article/justice-keta ... 45a953ba46

Street near Miami named for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson came home to South Florida on Monday to celebrate the renaming of a street in her honor in the community where she grew up.

“I hope that this street naming will also serve as a testament to what is possible in this great country,” said Brown, the first Black woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

During 40-minute ceremony in Cutler Bay attended by local dignitaries, members of the community and Brown’s parents, she noted how proud she is to have grown up in this area south of Miami. The newly named Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Street winds through a suburban neighborhood where peacocks stroll through yards and roost in oak trees.

“This in many ways is as much a celebration of us as it is of me, and I’m saying that because I grew up among all of you.” she said. “This is where I got my start, and I really do believe that there is an important connection between my experience growing up in this area and my current position as associate justice.”

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Happy International Women's Day!!!!

International Women's Day
On International Women's Day, we're at Madrid's iconic Cibeles Fountain and City Hall, which have been lit up in purple—one of the day's official colors, representing justice and dignity. Each year, marchers pass by the Great Mother of the Gods on her chariot drawn by lions, as they turn out in their thousands to campaign for gender equality in Spain's capital city.

International Women's Day has its roots in the US labor movement in the early 20th century. In 1908, 15,000 women marched in New York City for better working conditions and the right to vote and a national women's day was declared in 1909. The following year, German activist Clara Zetkin put forward the idea of holding an international women's day at a conference in Copenhagen. She got unanimous backing and the first one was celebrated on March 19, 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany. It wasn't until 1975 that it was officially recognised by the United Nations.

These days, International Women's Day is observed on March 8 in many countries around the world, a date to celebrate women's achievements and to continue to campaign for full gender equality.

https://www.bing.com

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2023/03/ ... ons-campus

USPS dedicates ‘beautiful and powerful’ Toni Morrison stamp at Princeton

Critically acclaimed and bestselling author Toni Morrison is a Nobel laureate and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, among her many stellar achievements. And now the late Princeton professor, who died in 2019 at the age of 88, has been honored with a U.S. Postal Service Forever stamp.

Family, friends, fans and stamp collectors gathered at Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall on March 7 to pay tribute to Morrison and to celebrate the first day of issue for the Toni Morrison Commemorative Forever stamp.

[Foggy]

Happy Women's Day, you women.

[raison de arizona]

Happy International Women's Day!

I'm excited about a panel of Women of XYZ Company happening at work today!

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[neonzx]

Happy Women's Day!!

When is men's day?

[AndyinPA]

Happy Women's Day!!

When is men's day?

Every day.

[neonzx]

Happy Women's Day!!

When is men's day?

Every day.

Glad you know your place. (incoming *duck and cover* )

[Frater I*I]

Glad you know your place. (incoming *duck and cover* )

The Fogbelles are gonna crucify you....

[MN-Skeptic]

Glad you know your place. (incoming *duck and cover* )

The Fogbelles are gonna crucify you....

We keep score. And lie in wait. Patiently.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

MN-Skeptic: We keep score. And lie in wait. Patiently.

[John Thomas8]

Taken by cancer too soon.

[Reddog]

Happy Women's Day!!

When is men's day?

Ford 'introduces' a men's only Explorer SUV
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedi ... the-c.html

[Sam the Centipede]

Taken by cancer too soon.
Sabine Schmitz video

Perhaps it's in the video: as part of one of those contrived Top Gear stunts, Schmitz was challenged with driving a white van around the Nurburgring as fast as racist Jeremy Clarkson had driven some fancy supercar, allegedly because she had poo-pooed Clarkson's lap time, saying she could do it as quickly in a van.

She didn't quite succeed, almost but not quite, but the attempt was on an open day at the track, so any boy racer with a fast car could pay the track fee and whack his penis substitute around the track, feeling like Michael Schumacher.

So, one can enjoy the schadenfreude of imagining those men's eyes opening wide and their egos popping as their supercars – "wow, I'm going really fast!" – are passed by a white van driven by a grinning young blonde woman! Back in the pits there would have been the odd sight of men peering into the dark footwells of their cars: "what have you lost?", "oh, it's nothing, I think my penis fell off at turn 8".

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Background of the Harriet Tubman $20 bill

The Biden administration announced that they will prioritize putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, a move that was initiated during the Obama administration before being shelved by former President Trump.

Human rights activists praised the move, which would have Tubman, a famous abolitionist and key organizer of the Underground Railway, replace Andrew Jackson.

Jackson, the 7th president of the U.S., was an enslaver and participated in the displacement and genocide of Native American populations.

The decision was instigated in 2016 by Treasury secretary Jacob Lew.

https://www.causes.com/articles/54775-h ... ly-horizon

[Sam the Centipede]

But but but … surely Donald Trump should be on the $20 bill as he is one of the great social reformers of all time, with his bigly campaigns on many issues?

[Foggy]

Gift article from the failing NY Times:

Overlooked No More: Elizabeth Wagner Reed, Who Resurrected Legacies of Women in Science

In 1992, the geneticist Elizabeth Wagner Reed self-published “American Women in Science Before the Civil War,” a book highlighting 22 19th-century scientists. One of them was Eunice Newton Foote, who wrote a paper on her remarkable discovery about greenhouse gases, “a phenomenon which is of concern to us even now,” Reed wrote.

Foote was forgotten soon after the paper was read aloud by a male scientist at a conference in 1856 and published the following year. A male scientist was eventually credited with the discovery.

Like Foote, Reed herself fell into obscurity, a victim of the erasure of female scientists that the historian Margaret Rossiter coined the Matilda Effect — named for the sociologist Matilda Joslyn Gage, whose 1870 pamphlet, “Woman as Inventor,” condemned the idea that women did not have the skills to succeed in the field.

Reed, however, made significant contributions to the sciences.

[RVInit]