I wrote about the influential work of Katherine G. Johnson and the whitewashed history of her life experiences sparking interest of Black female contribution to science last year. #BlackGirlMagic isn’t limited to athletics and fashion. We’ve made revolutionary discoveries in technological advancements that changed the way that society functions entirely and Katherine wasn’t the only Hidden Figure of science and technology throughout the 1950s and 60s. Gladys West was another African American pioneer mathematician whose work contributed to the technological advancement of the nation. Gladys West was an African American woman who developed GPS technology, an essential aspect of the most used elements of our society. The Global Positioning system, a space-based radio navigation.
West was born in Dinwiddie County, VA in 1931 to parents who worked the fields picking tobacco, corn and cotton. She was determined to go further than the plantation, and her key to a better life was education. After learning that the valedictorian of her school would receive a full ride to college, Gladys proudly accepted and beat the challenge. West pursued her Masters degree after graduating from Virginia State University on her full academic scholarship. She worked as a math teacher in Sussux County in Virginia for a few years before beginning her career in 1965 at the Dahlgren, a Naval Support Facility in Virginia. During the time she was only the 2nd woman to be hired making up half of the number of black people on staff at the Facility. She later married one of the other black mathematicians on staff, Ira West in 1957. The focus of her work in the Navy was collecting information from machines in outer space in order to determine their location as they transmitted data from around the world. She’d input the data she collected into giant “super computers” that were so large they’d fill an entire room. She’d also diligently analyze surface elevations while working day and night recording satellite locations. Her persistent and meticulous work made an invaluable contribution to the accuracy of GPS and after 42 years of dedicated work to the Navy, West retired in 1998. Her drive was limitless that even after her retirement she pursued her Ph.D. at age 80. West’s contribution to society affects our cell phones, cars, social media and many fields within global security such as military, auto industry and NASA; there aren’t arguably any secs of society that don’t rely directly or indirectly on GPS.
Contribution without Consent
There are so many areas of science in which Black women have been immeasurably revolutionary and they have been given very little recognition. Like West, Henrietta Lacks another black woman from Virginia, made indispensable contributions from science. Unlike West, Lacks was an involuntary participant, her cells were the first immortalized cell line (HeLa) in history and her cells continue to be used to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on the growth of cancer cells. Although she passed away at the young age of 31 in 1951, the popular use of her cells in scientific study were done without her knowledge or consent and further without that of her family after her passing. Lacks’ cells continue to be exploited by science, they’ve contributed to the development of countless medical services such as the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and in vitro fertilization. Although Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions her history is virtually unknown, and her own family can’t even afford health insurance.
It Doesn’t Stop There
Prior to our forced transport to the United States Africans had made many advancements in the fields of science and STEM professions continue to be dominated by men. My mother works among engineers as a designer, the only African American women that her co-workers interact with in the building. It pains me to think about the obstacles that she’s struggled and the frustrations she’s shared with me. There are many instances of racism and sexism that have occurred in the two decades she’s worked there to put me through school and guarantee her child a better education and more resources than she ever had. I continue to be inspired by the strength and persistence that she exhibits on a daily basis. Thinking about her work deepens my connection with the Black women who’ve made invaluable contributions to STEM fields in the United States, imagine where this society would be without our minds, our diligence, or cells, our tissues, our life giving and life enhancing bodies. My mother told me about the vision that she’d had while walking into work on a stressful morning. Before walking in she’d looked up and saw a massive angel standing with power on top of the building, its hands on its waist looking into my mother with confidence, “I got this” it stated, indicating its limitless power over my mother’s circumstances. The vision eased her spirit, allowing her to rest in comfort and continue her work unfazed by ignorant remarks, incidents of discriminatory treatment and acts of racism. Today I imagine that angel standing over the workplace of every black women’s frustration: from the Dahlgren, Naval Support Facility who buried the name of their most vital scientist to every lab inequitably manipulating the cells of a poor black women who’s family is currently being denied adequate healthcare, I hear that angel declaring, “I got this”.
