Black History Month: Saluting the Black Pioneers in Tech

1. Carter G Woodson:

The father of Black History Month, Carter Woodson started this historic movement in February 1926.
After completing his MA from University of Chicago and PhD from Harvard, Woodson noticed the lack of representation of Black pioneers in books and conversations that shaped the study of the American History. In 1916, he alongside Jesse Moorland founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) – an organization to widespread the importance and contribution of important black people for US history. ASALH launched a “Negro History Week” to bring attention to his mission and help school systems coordinate their focus on the topic. This gathered nation-wide attention and support that it ended up to be a month-long celebration

2. Katherine Johnson:

Being addicted to numbers and figures since an early age, Katherine graduated at the age of 18 from West Virginia State University with a degree in Mathematics and French. In 1953 she began working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)’s West Area Computing unit, a group of African American women who manually performed complex mathematical calculations for the program’s engineers. In 1958, NACA was incorporated into the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Over the years, she performed complex calculations that sent astronauts into orbit and the moon in the 1960 and 1969 respectively. Her most notable projects have been the Freedom 7, Friendship 7 and Apollo 11. Katherine Johnson lived the American dream of Black Women Mathematicians who helped America establish it’s successful space journey.

3. Mary Jackson :

Mary Jackson was an African American mathematician and aerospace engineer who contributed immensely towards women’s employment opportunities at NASA. After completing her graduation from Hampton University with dual degrees in Mathematics and Physical science. In 1951, Mary worked for NACA in the West area computing unit which made calculations for program engineers. Her continued perseverance towards excellence earned her a job in 1958 as the first black women engineer. After service for 20 years, she went against a managerial post and instead settled for a demotion to become the manager of the women’s program at NASA. In that post, she sought to improve the opportunities and careers for all black women in the organization.

4. Roy Clay Sr :

Known as the Godfather of Silicon Valley, Mr. Clay’s contribution towards computers has been monumental even before the Apples and Microsofts were formed. Clay learned how to program computer code while earning a degree at Saint Louis University for mathematics in 1956. Clay was present at the birth of the technology industry in the U.S. He was writing code even before the emergence of the civil rights era. In 1963 he was employed by Control Data Corporation working on a computer language known as Fortran; a general-purpose, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing. Mr. David Packard, founder of Hewlett-Packard 1965 recruited Clay to set up HP’s computer development business. He played a vital role in establishing HP by establishing the software development facility, managed the computer division, and guided the company’s emergence as an HP Computer company. He was the highest-ranked African-American in HP. His vision opened up avenues for capital investment into the sector and generated tremendous job opportunities as well.

5. Clarence Ellis :

Born on May 11, 1943, in the South Side of Chicago, Clarence worked at Dover Corporation where his main job was to look after the large mainframe computers. Even though he was told to not touch the systems, Clarence studied over twenty operating manuals on his own by reading the manuals. He learned how the machines operated and was able to get them running again when they malfunctioned. Clarence graduated in 1960 with a scholarship at Beloit College in Mathematics. Ellis was a trailblazer by sustaining the cultural restraints and pursuing a tough course in Math and Physics. His hard work paid off by gaining experience in companies like Xerox, IBM, Los Alamos Scientific Labs! Ellis spent most of his time teaching the underrepresented youth computer science and led a technology “groupware”- a software used to develop programs like Microsoft’s Sharepoint and Google Docs. Along with his prowess in computer science, Ellis was also the first African-American fellow named to the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).

6. Mark Dean:

A computer science inventor, Mark is the reason why we use PCs, Laptops, Tablets, etc today. Excellent in sports and relentless in academics, Mr. Mark graduated in Engineering from the University of Tennessee where he followed up with a Masters degree and Ph.D. from Florida Atlantic University and Stanford University respectively in Electrical Engineering. Soon after his education, Mark landed a job in IBM where his work spoke for itself! He owns 3 out of the 9 original IBM’s patents which includes the first color PC monitor and the first gigahertz chip. He was also the co-inventor of Industry Standard Architecture Systems which allows peripheral devices to be plugged into computers, printers and monitors.

7. Kimberly Bryant:

Fierce and Bold – these are the two words which signifies Kimberly Bryant. An African-Ameican electrical engineer pursued and excelled in a career in the field which is dominated by men. Kimberly completed her degree in Electrical Engineering minored in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University in 1989. Soon after, she was hired for many technical leadership roles in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries by Genentech.

As she gained experience, Kimberly eventually founded “Black Girls Code” – a training course to teach basic programming concepts to black girls who are underrepresented in tech careers. By 2013, the NGO reached over 3,000 students, established 7 institutions, operated in nearly 10 U.S. states, and worked internationally with a community in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her undeterred vision to expand black girls in tech, she was listed as one of the “25 Most Influential African-Americans In Technology” by Business Insider, was invited to the White House as a “Champion of Change,” received an American Ingenuity Award in Social Progress from the Smithsonian, and was bestowed the Inaugural Women Who Rule Award in Technology.

8. Evelyn Boyd Greenville:

One of the most decorated Mathematician and Computer Programmers from her times, Evelyn was the 2nd African American to receive a PhD from Yale University. She completed her graduation and Masters degree in Mathematics from Smith College in 1945 and 1946 respectively and continued to pursue her doctorate from Yale University. After her successful educational journey, Evelyn joined IBM and during her time there, they had received a contract from NASA. She then eagerly moved to the space agency’s Vanguard Computing Center in Washington, D.C., where she worked on the formulation of orbit computations and computer procedures. Her involvement was significant in various projects for Project Apollo; including celestial mechanics, trajectory and orbit computations, numerical analysis and digital computer techniques.

Basking in the field where opportunities are less for black men and women, Evelyn was the shining light for the community to build a career in tech.