After the terrible tenure of being in slavery, Black women gathered some courage and started to pursue formal education and professional careers. That’s the reason why we have some of the amazing Black women who have made some amazing history. Mae Carol Jemison is one of those Black ladies who made a history through her passion by pursuing a difficult yet unique career. Jemison is an African-American physician, engineer and NASA astronaut. On September 12, 1992, she went outer space through Space Shuttle Endeavour and became the first Black female astronaut.

Born on 17^th of October 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, Jemison is the youngest child of Charlie Jemison and Dorothy Jemison. She got full support from her parents, and they encouraged her to work on her abilities and talent. She mde her way to spend most of her time in school library studying science and astronomy. While studying Morgan Park High School, she convinced herself to study biomedical engineering in future. In 1973, she proudly graduated as a consistent honor student. Later she studied at Stanford University by National Achievement Scholarship.

From the very first day in high school, Jemison was too much involved in the extracurricular activities that included theater production and dance. She also served as the proud head of the Black Student Union. She did her Bachelors in Chemical Engineering. After her graduation, she found some time, and to expand her horizon opted herself to work in a Cambodian refugee camp situated in Thailand. After returning to U.S. in 1985, Jemison thought for a career change to follow her dream job. So the same year, she applied for NASA’s astronaut training program, but her selection got delayed due to Challenger disaster. She reapplied and then got selected as one of the 15 candidates to travel in space.

On June 4, 1987, Jemison became the first Black female to get admission in the astronaut training program, and after a year she became the first Black female astronaut who will be responsible for conducting crew-based scientific experiments on the space shuttle. On September 12, 1992, Jemison traveled the Endeavour for the mission STS47 along with six other astronauts. She spent eight days in space and returned on September 20, 1992, that made her dream come true.

Source Article:

https://www.biography.com/people/mae-c-jemison-9542378