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Home , Homer Hickam, Mae Jemison, Nichelle Nichols

Former Brings her Message Down to Earth ShootingStar IT WOULD’VE BEEN SO CHARMINGLY NAIVE, THIS TALE MAE JEMISON TELLS OF HER EARLY CELESTIAL DREAMS, IF IT WEREN’T ALSO A PARA- BLE FOR THE SPIRIT THAT “Images show us possibili- HELPED MAKE THEM COME ties,” the Stanford graduate says. TRUE. AS FANTASTICAL AS IT “A lot of times, fantasy is what SOUNDS, HER PIONEERING gets us through to reality.” JOURNEY ABOARD THE SPACE A quarter of a century after SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR WAS Lt. Uhura boldly went where no FUELED BY A CHILDHOOD PAS- African American had gone be- SION FOR “,” ITS fore, her protegee returned the MADE-FOR-TV ADVENTURES favor. Before blasting into orbit By Jesse Katz STIMULATING A HUNGER FOR aboard the Endeavour in 1992, REAL ONES IN HER MIND. Jemison, the first woman of Illustration by Barry Blitt color in space, called actress Who cared that, in reality, every to thank her for U.S. astronaut was white and the inspiration. And then she male at the time? She looked no made a promise: further than the USS Enterprise. Despite NASA’s rigid proto- After all, right there on the col, Jemison would begin each screen, week in and week out, shift with a salute that only a who could miss Lt. Uhura, the could appreciate. “Hail- starship’s stylish, self-assured ing frequencies open,” she could communications officer – and a be heard repeating throughout black woman, no less. For little the eight-day mission. Mae, a child of the ’60s, the Now the president of her make-believe image was more own consulting firm, its mission potent than any dispiriting fact to find high-tech salves for the of real life. afflictions of developing nations,

38 STANFORD TODAY July/August 1996 o Earth

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y Barry Blitt Dr. Mae Carol Jemison is the Lt. pose on us. When cynics took aim at manager for the Endeavour mission. Uhura of her generation. As she pre- another popular TV series, “The Although he described Jemison’s pared to return to Stanford to de- Cosby Show,” she was deeply 1993 resignation as amicable, he ac- liver the university’s 105th com- pained by the implication that a knowledged that the space agency mencement address June 16, it was happy middle-class African Ameri- was not thrilled to see her go. with the realization that her own can family was somehow the stuff of “NASA had spent a lot of money achievements have helped redefine futuristic fancy. training her; she also filled a niche, the image of modern-day scientists – “Nothing hurts me more than obviously, being a woman of color,” in world, not just in space- when I run into a little girl or a little says Hickam, now the training man- age fiction. boy who asks me how they should ager for NASA’s space station ef- keep from being limited because forts. But he added that it would N ENGINEER, PHYSI- they’re black or they grew up poor,” have been counterproductive to CIAN, educator and she said. “I think a lot of that comes stand in her way. jazz dancer, Jemison is from the images that we provide to “I see Mae as sort of an all- keenly aware of the them, images that focus on one around ambassador,” says Hickam. obstacles that women stereotypic way of life. When a 6- or “She just really wanted to make a and minorities must 7- or 8-year-old child asks me, ‘How connection with the world.” overcome to succeed do you get over this?’ that’s a ques- Born in and raised in in fields that have long tion they’ve been taught to ask.” by a carpenter father and been exclusionary. At Sitting in a conference room at schoolteacher mother, young Mae 39, she is angrier than her firm, The Jemison spent her childhood learning to she once was about how inherently Group Inc., she radiates poise: Her make connections to the world by Aunfair that is, about how impossibly sentences are precise and methodi- studying the patterns of stars, flow- superb members of those excluded cal, but she also erupts into bursts of ers, trees, ants – even pustulant groups are expected to be in order to self-deprecating hilarity. Tall and wounds. prove that merit, not entitlement, striking, her hair short and natural, “It sounds a little gross, but I won them an opportunity. she appears refreshingly unadorned was fascinated with pus,” she said, “If we can allow some people to – almost no makeup or jewelry, recalling a splinter that infected her be average, how come a minority or other than a gold hoop in each ear thumb as a little girl. Like many of a woman who comes into a particu- and a rubber band around her right her experiences, it became a spring- lar job has to be the absolute cream wrist. board for exploration. “I ran and of the crop?” asked Jemison, who As Jemison is quick to point out, showed it to my mother and she was candidly acknowledges that affirma- she is far from a one-dimensional telling me it was pus,” Jemison con- tive action helped secure her a spot NASA-molded, “black Barbie doll.” tinued, laughing at the memory. “I in Stanford’s Class of ’77. On her shuttle flight, she brought was like, ‘Well, what is that?’ And I But Jemison, in spite of – or be- along an Alvin Ailey dance poster, a ended up doing this whole project, cause of – all the hurdles she has West African statuette and a reading about pus. My mother al- As Jemison is quick to point out, she is far from a one-dimensional, NASA-m scaled, retains a dreamy sense of Michael Jordan jersey – artifacts de- ways told me to go find out the in- confidence. It is the same unbridled signed to promote the idea that formation myself. She was very di- imagination that allowed her to en- “space is a birthright for all of us on rective, in the sense of ‘it’s your vision herself in space at a time this planet.” responsibility,’ sort of like those peo- when Lt. Uhura, for all her techno- It is a view of the world that ulti- ple who tell you to go look up a logical prowess, was still better mately left her feeling somewhat word in the dictionary when you known for performing TV’s first in- confined at NASA, where space mis- don’t know how to spell it.” terracial kiss. Without dismissing so- sions are built on specialization and Even those activities that con- ciety’s obvious inequities, Jemison training depends on the repetition of formed to more traditional gender remains convinced that the only true narrowly prescribed tasks. “Mae’s roles became tools for discovery. As limits are the ones we impose on personality was too big for that,” a girl, Mae was expected to learn ourselves – or permit others to im- says , her training how to sew, first stitching clothes for

40 STANFORD TODAY July/August 1996 her Barbie dolls, then designing “She just had a different twist on “I think it’s so vitally important that many of her own outfits. It was only life,” says Jemison’s closest friend, all people in this world are involved later, when she began studying engi- Lynda Bradford, who runs a chil- in the process of discovery,” says neering and medicine, that she real- dren’s program at the Chicago Mu- Jemison, who was named in the ized the extent to which her crafts seum of Science and Industry. “If she 1993 edition of People magazine’s were intertwined. “When I got into saw it and she wanted to experience “50 Most Beautiful People in the surgery, I was struck by how much it, there was no barrier to her achiev- World.” At first Jemison thought things were just like sewing,” she ing it. She felt the world was her the distinction was “goofy,” but said. “It taught me a lot about how laboratory.” then decided it would serve a things are put together, about con- Those experiences helped lay the greater purpose. “We need to structing patterns and doing three- foundation for Jemison’s most recent change the image of who does sci- dimensional work in your mind.” endeavors, both with her for-profit ence,” she said. “That’s important Her precociousness put her on a Jemison Group in Houston and with not only for folks who want to go fast track in school, so that she was her non-profit Jemison Institute at into science, but for the folks who just 16 when she arrived at Stan- , where she is a fund science.” ford—a university that attracted her, member of the environmental studies she says only half in jest, because of faculty. She is currently at work on ATELY, JEMISON HAS been in its back-to-back Rose Bowl victories Alafiya (meaning “good health” in the public eye for reasons in the early ’70s. Once again, she Yoruba), a satellite-based telecom- not entirely of her choos- seemed almost oblivious to the acad- munications system designed to im- ing. On Feb. 24, a police emic and social challenges that prove the delivery of health-care in- officer stopped her for a might have intimidated a less head- formation in remote corners of West minor traffic infraction in strong student. Africa. She also has teamed up with a Nassau Bay, the tiny south- “I was naive and stubborn South African firm, Suncorp, to de- east Houston suburb that enough that it didn’t faze me,” she velop a solar-energy system capable has been her home for said. “It’s not until recently that I re- of storing power for nighttime use eight years. After learning alized that 16 was particularly young and periods of increased demand. Lthat she had an outstanding warrant or that there were even any issues as- Her blend of social concern and for an old speeding ticket, the officer sociated with my parents having technical know-how make her “one pulled out his handcuffs and began enough confidence in me to [allow of the most interdisciplinary people placing her under arrest. In a formal me to] go that far away from home.” you can find,” says Ross Virginia, complaint, Jemison accused the offi- Jemison, who received a degree chairman of Dartmouth’s environ- cer of physically and emotionally in chemical engineering and fulfilled mental studies program. Typically, mistreating her, twisting her arms the requirements for another in he said, efforts to improve condi- and throwing her face down on the Afro-American studies, recalls her tions in developing countries focus pavement. Although the officer was Stanford years as “wonderful and on reverting to simpler ways of life. cleared of wrongdoing by his depart- very positive,” but remembers the Jemison’s work is unique in that she ment, Jemison insisted, “A citizen shouldn’t be manhandled and abused for a traffic stop.” Jemison’s return to Stanford puts her back in a more welcome spot- light. She admits to feeling a bit weak- mensional, NASA-molded, ‘black Barbie doll’ kneed about the notion of facing her old . But she also ac- sting of a handful of professors who is “designing technology with hu- knowledges the responsibilities that seemed uncomfortable with a young man needs at heart, getting people come with her achievements, a duty black woman in their classes. Still, with a stake in the outcome involved to pass on some of the inspiration she believes those experiences made in the design,” Virginia said. Al- that helped catapult her into the her a stronger person, launching her though some of her projects are still cosmos. on a decade of scholarship and wan- in their infancy, he added, “she’s a “Public figures can be images,” derlust, during which she graduated strong, credible voice.” she said. “Images of what other from Cornell Medical College while Jemison, who also runs an inter- folks can be or how they might live applying her skills in Cuba, Kenya, national science camp called “The their lives.” ST Thailand and, later as a Earth We Share,” believes her ulti- medical officer, in and mate mission is to democratize tech- Jesse Katz is the Houston bureau . nology. chief for the Times.

July/August 1996 STANFORD TODAY 41