Single Women Who Made History II

Single Women Who Made History

Barbara Jordan (1936–1996) was an American lawyer, educator, and politician, who was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement and an outstanding orator.  A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives. She was best known for her eloquent opening statement^[at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon, and as the first African-American as well as the first woman to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention.

She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom among numerous other honors. She was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1978 to 1980.   In the KUT-FM radio documentary Rediscovering Barbara Jordan, President Bill Clinton said that he had wanted to nominate Jordan for the United States Supreme Court, but by the time he could do so, Jordan’s health problems prevented him from nominating her. She was diagnosed with leukemia.  Her 1974 statement on the articles of impeachment (regarding President Richard Nixon) was listed as #13 in American Rhetoric’s Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century (listed by rank). And her 1976 Democratic National Convention keynote address was listed as #5 in American Rhetoric’s Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century (listed by rank).

Mae Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.  Jemison joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected to serve for the STS-47 mission, during which she orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992.   Born in Alabama and raised in Chicago, Jemison graduated from Stanford University with degrees in chemical engineering as well as African and African-American studies. She then earned her medical degree from Cornell University. Jemison was a doctor for the Peace Corps in Liberia and Sierra Leone from 1983 until 1985 and worked as a general practitioner. In pursuit of becoming an astronaut, she applied to NASA.   Jemison left NASA in 1993 and founded a technology research company. She later formed a non-profit educational foundation and through the foundation is the principal of the 100 Year Starship project funded by DARPA. Jemison also wrote several books for children and appeared on television several times, including in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation,  She holds several honorary doctorates and has been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame.

Marie Daly (1921–2003) was a chemist, researcher, well-known scientist, and activist.  She was also the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States. She worked closely with scientist Dr. Quentin B. Deming and their work opened up a new understanding of how foods and diet can affect the health of the heart and the circulatory system.  After completing her doctoral degree, Daly taught for two years at Howard University in Washington, DC. On receiving a grant from the American Cancer Society to support her post-doctoral research, she joined Alfred E. Mirsky, a pioneer in molecular biology, at the Rockefeller Institute in New York, where for seven years she worked on the composition and metabolism of components of the cell nucleus, among other studies. Then Daly took a new position teaching biochemistry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. In 1960 she became a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she remained until her retirement in 1986.