Black History Month

By Elizabeth Bergren

Mae Jemison

Mae Jemison was born on October 17, 1956. She was born in Decatur, Alabama. If you didn’t already know she was the first African American woman in space. She is still alive today.

 

Mae Jemison was the youngest child in her family. Her siblings names were Ada and Charles Jemison. Her family moved to Chicago, when Mae was three. She was in her school library a lot reading about astronomy, and when she graduated in 1973 she had been an honor student, she went Stanford University on a National Achievement Scholarship.

At Stanford, Mae Jemison got a B.S. in chemical engineering and a B.A. in African and African-American Studies. Mae did dance when she was young. She was the head of the Black Student Union. She entered Cornell University Medical College to work toward a medical degree.

 

NASA chose Mae for astronaut training in 1982. She became an astronaut of a science mission specialist. On September 12, 1992, she flew into space with six other astronauts aboard the Endeavour. During her eight days in space, she conducted experiments on weightlessness and motion sickness. When she got back she like a celebrity she was the first African American woman in space.