Black history month which is also known as African-American History Month in the U.S. is celebrated in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands and it where people celebrate achievements done by African- Americans. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. Black History Month was created in 1926 in the United States, by a historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and it was chosen to be the second week of February and it was called ‘Negro History Week’. This week was chosen because it is the same week of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln, February 12 and Frederick Douglass, February 14.
Annie Easley was born in Birmingham, Alabama on April 23, 1933. Her education was limited due to segregation, her school of African- Americans were always going to be inferior to the White schools. This did not stop her, her mother, Willie Sims encouraged her that she could do anything that she set her mind to and worked for. After high school, she went to Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana. She returned back home in 1954 where all African- Americans had to take a literacy test and pay a poll tax so that they could vote. In 1964, the Twenty-fourth Amendment outlawed the poll tax in Federal elections which greatly impacted Easley’s city. After about 11 years, the literacy test was no longer apart of how African- Americans could vote.
As part of continuing education, Easley worked through specialization courses offered by NASA. IN her 34-year career she developed and implemented computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies, supported the Centaur high-energy upper rocket stage, determined solar, wind and energy projects, identified energy conversion systems and alternative systems to solve energy problems. Her computer programs have been used to identify energy conversion systems that offer an improvement over commercially available technologies.
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Easley’s work with the Centaur project became the technological foundations for the space shuttle launches and launches of communication, military and weather satellites. Her work contributed to the 1997 flight to Saturn of the Cassini probe, the launcher of which had the Centaur as its upper stage. There is a 55-page interview transcript that includes material on the history of the Civil Rights Movement, Johnson Space Center, Glenn Research Center, space flight, and the contribution of women to space flight.
In conclusion, Annie Easley is remembered for her tremendous contributions to NASA, mathematics, and science. She proved how to be strong and how to never give up even when the odds are stacked against you. She, along with many other influential and iconic African- Americans are remembered till this day during Black History Month. Annie taught many young girls to fight for what they believe in and to keep trying even when people doubt or discourage you. Even when people would say that she could not be an astronaut and that it was a mans’ job, she did not let that stop her.
