Black History
‘I Will Persevere’: The Journey Of Two African American Female Astronauts
The rigorous preparation required to become one of NASA’s astronauts is well-documented, requiring great mental and physical strength. Thousands apply for one of the few coveted positions, and Jeannette Epps and Joan Higginbotham earned one of them. While Higginbotham – the third African American woman to go into space — has retired, NASA announced in 2017 that Epps would become the first African American woman to travel to the International Space Station where she would conduct research with far-reaching implications.
“Granted that the research that I’ll do is not my very own research, but I will be the hands and the eyes for the researchers here on the ground,” Epps explained. “And so as we get closer and closer to flight, we’ll learn more details about the different experiments that we’ll conduct on board the space station.”
Despite NASA’s announcement five years ago, Epps has not been to the ISS. In Oct. 2021 during a webinar hosted by Links, Incorporated – an African American women’s service organization that counts both women as members – Epps spoke enthusiastically about the work she anticipates doing while living on board the ISS.
Epps mentioned, “There’s been a lot of research done on rodents. A lot of the individual things that we do with the rodents are to help mitigate, for example, osteoporosis in human beings. That’s one of the major research items that came out of some of the studies of the international space station.”
Epps began to dream of a career in space after an older brother looked at her report card and remarked that she should consider becoming an aerospace engineer. The seed had been planted. In college she majored in Physics and completed her master’s degree and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering.
She worked at Ford for two years as a researcher before the CIA recruited Epps as an analyst in the weapons nonproliferation group where she studied aircraft from other countries. Finally, she thought the time had come to apply to NASA. She did so in 2008 and was selected from a pool of 3,500 candidates.
Joan Higginbotham’s Russian Experience
During the virtual event, Higginbotham talked about her NASA journey and recounted an experience training with Russian cosmonauts.
The Chicago native said, “My classmates and I were some of the first astronauts to train with the Russian cosmonauts in Russia, and it was quite an eye-opening experience being an African American woman in Russia where someone like me wasn’t a common occurrence. And having women train with all the male Russian cosmonauts wasn’t that common either.”
One incident served as a stark reminder of the cultural and gender chasm she had traversed.
“There was an incident where we were training in Russia … and I needed to go to the restroom and there were no women’s restrooms in the training facility,” Higginbotham shared. “So, I had to use the men’s restroom while my translator guarded the door for me.”
For Black women who have excelled in one of the last bastions of white male dominance, Epps and Higginbotham have discovered core strengths essential to achieving.
“What I learned about me throughout this journey of becoming an astronaut is that I am determined, and I will persevere,” she stated. “It was pretty devastating to me when I was not selected as an astronaut on my first attempt because I had come too close, and it would have been really easy to let that setback prevent me from any type of forward progress. But I was really determined to do everything that I could do in my power that would give me the best chance of being selected to be an astronaut so, therefore, [I decided to go] back to school and I persevered.”
In Arkansas a formerly all-Black school, Ouachita County Training School, has launched a national fundraising effort to restore the campus following its designation as a site on the National Register of Historic Places. One of the first corporate donations to OCTS, located in Bearden, Arkansas, came from the Katherine Anthony Foundation.
Anthony’s nephew, Steve, and CEO of Anthony Timberlands, presented a $10,000 check to the historic committee.
“We are happy to support the work of the Greater Bradley District Association and the Ouachita County Training School committee in their efforts to maintain the infrastructure and grounds of the training school, which is such an important part of the Bearden community,” Anthony said.
The National Park Service listed OCTS on the prestigious register in 2023.
“Since we received the news, we have been excited and motivated to raise the fund necessary to preserve this part of our history!” Virginia Ashley, committee president said. “We recognize the pivotal role OCTS played in educating several generations of young people who started right here and went on to contribute greatly to the Black middle class and the world.”
The gift of education
For education advocates, December holds a special place in American history. During the Christmas Season in 1952, the Supreme Court first heard arguments to eliminate segregation in the nation’s public schools. But, it took two more years before the Court issued its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring segregation unconstitutional.
During the 1950s, OCTS educated Black students in the small southern town south of Little Rock, which became known internationally for The Little Rock Nine and their efforts to integrate Central High School. In Bearden, several Rosenwald Schools had consolidated to create the larger OCTS campus that educated students from the first through the 12th grades.
“I have such wonderful memories of my days as a student at OCTS,” recalled Pearlie Newton, a retired educator and executive director of the OCTS historic committee. “My dad helped pour concrete at the campus, my husband and I met there and it was in one of the classrooms that my goal to become an educator took shape.”
Despite the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision eliminating “separate but equal” schools, OCTS remained segregated until 1971 when it merged with the white school district in the area. An association of Black Baptist churches known as the Greater Bradley District Association purchased the campus for use as its headquarters.
Pastor and Association Moderator, Verna Thompson, said, “We are excited about the renovation and look forward to holding our church services and meetings in a modernized facility that holds so much historic significance.”
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