One Mic Black History Newsletter
Today we tell the stories of the Katherine Johnson, Claudette Colvin and the use of Eminent Domain on Black Communities
She was a mathematician who changed the course of history, Her name was Katherine Johnson and Feb, 24 2020, she passed away, so today we are going to celebrate her life.
born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in 1918. Growing up, I was a natural at math, she took college-level calculus and French courses in high school. she took every math class that was available to her West Virginia State. One of her mentors, famed black mathematician Dr. William W. Schiefflin Claytor, even designed a course on the geometry of space especially for her. Johnson graduated summa cum laude with degrees in both mathematics and French at only 18 years old
In the mid-1950s, she began her career as an educator and tutor, but soon shifted to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which would eventually be known as NASA. At the time, the agency was investigating the possibility of space travel, which necessitated a lot of calculations. In the absence of powerful computers, NASA employed a group of women, referred to as 'computers', to do the intricate mathematics for a low wages
In 1962, John Glenn's historical three orbits around Earth symbolized a major triumph American space travel and while Glenn is the figure remembered for this accomplishment, Johnson was a key contributor to making his mission possible. During that time, computers had difficulty accurately calculating the orbital equations necessary for a successful mission. Due to this, Glenn asked Johnson to double-check the computer's calculations prior to his launch. saying that, “If she says they’re good, then I’m ready to go.” The flight went off without a hitch.
The same year John Glenn made his historic journey, President John F. Kennedy issued a directive to NASA to begin work on a mission to send a manned spacecraft to the moon. This trip would require even more calculations, and Johnson once again played a significant role. She worked with a team of engineers to pinpoint the time and location of departure that would put astronauts on track for the moon. The Apollo moon landing program was a success, and arguably one of the most famous events in the history of space travel.
NASA deputy administrator Dava Newman in a statement from NASA, is quoted as saying Johnson “literally wrote the textbook on rocket science”. She literally co-authored one of the first textbooks on space while while working in NASA’s Flight Dynamics Branch at the Langley Research Center. Later in her career, Johnson even worked on some of the NASA's early plans for a mission to Mars, decades before NASA would even release a detailed plan for reaching the Mars.
Few people knew the name Katherine Johnson when the first astronauts landed on the moon in 1969, So In 2015, her contributions were finally acknowledged when President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her pioneering work in the fields of STEM
March 2, 1955, Claudette Colvin was arrest for not giving up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus 6 months before Rosa Parks
Claudette was let out of school early because of a faculty meeting and was returning home. She boarded the bus, paid her fare and walked straight on because there were no white people on the bus and sat in the colored section As they rode the bus got more and more crowded with white folks getting off from work.
So When a white woman who got on the bus was left standing she stood in the aisle between the seat in Claudette's row, clearly expecting her to get up. the bus driver, Robert W. Cleere, looked in the mirror and said "I need those seats" and three other black women in her row to move to the back. The other three moved, The white woman still wouldn't sit down even across from Claudette. So the driver yelled "Why are you still sitting there" to which another black passenger responded "she ain't got to do nothing but stay black and die".
So the driver hollered for policeman, When two officer arrived, they was forcibly dragged her from the bus and arrested. During the ride to the station they swore and made sexual comments about her body, took turns guessing her bra size and called her a "nigger bitch".
Colvin was initially charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation laws, and battering and assaulting a police officer. She was bailed out by her minister, who told her that she had brought the revolution to Montgomery.
Colvin later stated: "My mother told me to be quiet about what I did. She told me to let Rosa be the one: white people aren't going to bother Rosa, they like her". Colvin felt she didn't receive the same attention as Parks for a number of reasons: she did not have "good hair", she was not fair-skinned, she was a teenager and pregnant.
The Civil Rights leaders wanted to keep up appearances and make sure the "most appealing" protesters were the most seen. While Claudette Colvin wasn’t the face of the Montgomery bus boycott. She was the star of Fred Gray‘s lawsuit against the city of Montgomery and state of Alabama that ultimately was the reason Montgomery was forced to desegregate their buses.
Colvin says she has since come to terms with “raw feelings” about the way her contributions to the civil rights movement were overshadowed by other activists.
Eminent Domain is the power of the government to take private property and convert it to public use. The Fifth Amendment of the constitution provides that the government must provide “just compensation” to the property owners. However, “just compensation” may not always be fair and the government is notorious for paying property owners less than market value for their properties.
The U.S. Supreme Court first examined federal eminent domain power in 1876 in Kohl v. United States. This case presented a landowner’s challenge to the power of the United States to condemn land in Cincinnati, Ohio for use as a custom house and post office building. Justice William Strong called the authority of the federal government to appropriate property for public uses “essential to its independent existence and perpetuity.”
Eminent domain has been utilized traditionally to facilitate transportation, supply water, construct public buildings, and aid in defense readiness. Early federal cases condemned property for construction of public buildings, provide drinking water and for the production of war materials and public parks. for example, During World War II, the Assistant Attorney General called the Lands Division “the biggest real estate office of any time or any place.” It oversaw the acquisition of more than 20 million acres of land. Property was transformed into airports and naval station.
For decades Black communities have borne the brunt of these land grabs, Often local governments justified these actions by declaring areas “blighted,” a word advocates say became synonymous with low-income, under-resourced neighborhoods. A study of more than 2,532 “blight” projects nationwide found the projects displaced more than 1 million Black Americans from 1949 to 1973. Black people were 12% of the population but resented two-thirds of those displaced by the government.
Thank you so much for joining us today, I hope you have a wonderful day, If you like stories like this you can find more stories like this at One Mic History.
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-Countryboi