Dr. Patricia Era Bath, a doctor, inventor, humanitarian, and educator, is a woman of passionate charity. She committed her life to the health sciences with the will to help cure individuals by giving them the basic human sense of sight. In doing this act, she composed the Laserphaco Probe which made the surgery for cataracts easier to operate. She was able to completely patent the device for cataract surgery in 1988 after many difficulties. Her commitment also led her to being a key leader and co-founder to the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. Throughout her career in the health sciences, she worked as an eye surgeon and also taught at institutions as a professor of ophthalmology. Dr. Bath endured and successfully overcame many hurdles in the scientific community as an inventor, an African-American and a woman. However, she did not want her achievements in the two minority categories to define her, but instead for her work to be praised. Bath once said, "Hopefully, our society will come to that point. Sometimes I want to say to people, just look at my work. . . I've had technological obstacles, scientific obstacles, and obstacles being a woman. Yes, I'm interested in equal opportunities, but my battles are in science." …show more content…
Her parents instilled in her the characteristics of work ethic and independence which guaranteed her what she needed to do great things. She was born on November 4, 1942 in Harlem, New York to Rupert Bath and Gladys Bath. Her father, Rupert Bath was an immigrant from Trinidad who was the first black man to work as a motorman on the subway systems as well as a newspaper columnist and a merchant seaman. His travels as a merchant seaman increased her curiosity and vision of the world outside of the projects of Harlem and also yearned for her to have travel
Mary Breckenridge, born in 1881 was privileged with a good childhood and education in the United States and Europe. Her family traveled consistently with her father as a States Ambassador to Russia, which gave her a lot of experience to many different cultures. Renowned private tutors taught Mary and that is how she received most of her education as a child.
Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes was the first African American women to earn a PH.D in mathematics. She was the first and only child of William S. Lofton, a dentist and financier, and Lavinia Day Lofton. Euphemia Lofton Haynes was born Martha Euphemia Lofton on September 11, 1890 in Washington D.C. In 1917 she married her childhood sweetheart Dr.Harold Appo Haynes. They knew each other very well, as they grew up in the same neighborhood when they were teenagers. They both attended, and graduated from M St. High school. Her husband graduated from M St high school in 1906, a year earlier than she did. During their marriage they were highly focused on their careers, and didn’t have any children.
Josephine Baker was born to Carrie McDonald, in St. Louis, MO on June 3, 1906. The situation on who Baker’s father is up to debate, it is rumored that Eddie Carson was her father. Eddie Carson was a drummer and had an entertainment act with Baker’s mother. At birth, Baker’s name was Freda Josephine McDonald. (Robinson) Later, Baker changed her name when she got into the entertainment business. In her youth, Baker was always poorly dressed and hungry; she started working at the age of 8 years old. (Whitaker 64) She worked as domestic help for a white family; the woman of the house was reportedly abusive to Baker. At the age of 12, Baker dropped out of school. After Baker dropped out of school, she became homeless. (Wood 241–318)
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 to Susan and George Coleman who had a large family in Texas. At the time of Bessie’s birth, her parents had already been married for seventeen years and already had nine children, Bessie was the tenth, and she would later have twelve brothers and sisters. Even when she was small, Bessie had to deal with issues about race. Her father was of African American and Cherokee Indian decent, and her mother was black which made it difficult from the start for her to be accepted. Her parents were sharecroppers and her life was filled with renter farms and continuous labor. Then, when Bessie was two, her father decided to move himself and his family to Waxahacie, Texas. He thought that it would offer more opportunities for work, if he were to live in a cotton town.
Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Her father, James Wells, was a carpenter and her mother was a cook. After the Civil War her parents became politically active. Her father was known as “race'; man, a term given to African Americans involved in the leadership of the community. He was a local businessman, a mason, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Shaw University. Both parents provided Ida with strong role models. They worked hard and held places of respect in the community as forward-looking people. James and Elizabeth (mother) Wells instilled their daughter a keen sense of duty to God, family, and community.
Ida Bell Wells, more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was born in Holly Springs Mississippi on the 16th of July in 1862. Ida was raised by her mother Lizzie Wells and her father James Wells. She was born into slavery as the oldest of eight children in the family. Both Ida’s parents were enslaved during the Civil War but after the war they became active in the Republican Party during the Reconstruction era. Ida’s father, James, was also involved in the Freedman’s Aid Society (www.biography.com). He also helped to start Shaw University. Shaw University was a university for the newly freed slaves to attend, it was also where Ida received the majority of her schooling. However, Ida received little schooling because she was forced to take care of her other siblings after her parents and one of her siblings passed away due to Yellow Fever. Ida became a teacher at the age of 16 as a way to make money for her and her siblings. Eventually Ida and all her sisters moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to live with their aunt, leaving all their brothers behind to continue working. In Memphis Ida began to stand up for the rights of African Americans and women.
Harriet Tubman was originally named Araminta Ross. She was one of 11 children born to Harriet Greene and Benjamin Ross on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. She later took her mother's first name. Harriet was working at the age of five. She was a maid and a children's nurse before she worked in the field when she was 12. A year later, a white guy either her watcher or her master smacked her on the head with a really heavy weight. The hit was so hard it left her with permanent neurological damage. In result of the hit she had sudden blackouts during the rest of her life.
Harriet Tubman, born as Araminta Harriet Ross, was recorded to have been born in the year 1820. The exact month and day remains undeclared. She was born in the state of Maryland in a county founded in the year 1669 by the name of Dorchester County. The day she was born her future was awaiting her already. She was born into slavery meaning she was the child of two former slaves. Their names were Harriet Green, and Benjamin Ross, who had been salves for the majority of their lives. Harriet the mother was owned by a woman by the name of Mary Pattison Brodess, while Benjamin was owned by Anthony Thompson. Harriet the mother was a cook for the Brodess family. Benjamin, Harriet Tubman’s dad was a skilled and talented woodsman who accomplished to timber work on the Thompson’s plantation. Harriet Tubman’s parents married approximately in the year 1808 and they had nine children together. Their names were Linah, Mariah, Soph, Robert, Minty (Harriet), Ben...
Harriet Tubman was born in 1820, in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was born into slavery, and was raised under very harsh cond...
Harriet Tubman was born a slave in Dorchester county Maryland to Harriet Green and Ben Ross in approximately 1822. Her name at birth
Born on the Edward Brodas Plantation, in Dorchester Country to Benjamin Ross and Harriet Green around 1820, Harriet Tubman was one of the most advancing forces with the Underground Railroad. Originally named Araminta ‘Minty’ Ross, she changed her last name when she married and her first in honor of her mother (Women in History). As a young child, she was put to work as a house servant, taking care of menial chores like cleaning and taking care of babies. She once said, “I was so little that I had to sit on the floor and have the baby put in my lap, and that baby was always in my lap except when it was sleep or when its mother was feeding it (Driggs).” She did not like being forced to babysit every day and nonstop for hours at a time. Many times, she was “loaned” out to other slave owners to do similar work in their houses (PBS). She was rebellious even at a young age; she stole a lump of sugar at the age of seven and proceeded to run away to avoid being punished. She was gone for five days before she su...
Lillian Wald was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on March 10, 1867 into a cultured Jewish family. Both of her parents were immigrants, her mother was from Germany and her father was from Poland. The Walds’ moved from Cincinnati to New York where Lillian’s father, Max, dealt in optical wares in Rochester. She had the advantage of a very good education; not only did she know Latin, but she also spoke German and French as well as English.
Harriet Tubman was born in Maryland, and her parents, Harriet Green and Ben Ross, were enslaved in Dorchester County. Harriet's original name was Araminta Harriet Ross. She had eight other siblings. Like many slaves, Harriet's exact year and date of birth wasn't recorded. Historians believed it was around 1822. They were owned by Pattison Brodess and then later on by Edward, Pattison's son.
Harriet Tubman was born as a slave in the in Dorchester County, Maryland and her parents were Ben and Harriet Green. There is no actual record of her birthday, however, it is said that she was born in between the years 1820 and 1821; it was a typical issue of that time period for most of the American slaves who born during that era. Harriet started to take part on the job of being a slave at the initial stage of her life. Her very first task as a kid was to look after of her younger brother as well as she was accountable for the take care of one of slave owner’s little ones.
Gloria Richardson was born May 6, 1922 to a very wealthy family in Baltimore, Maryland to the parents of John and Mabel Hayes. At age 6 her family moved to the city Cambridge where they owned a very successful hardware store. Gloria attended Howard University in Washington, D.C at age 16 and graduated in 1942 with a B.A in Sociology. She attempted to become a social worker but she was banned from all positions because of her race. Gloria married a local school teacher, Harry Richardson and raised a family with no job so she just became a housewife.