To celebrate Black History Month we’re focusing on Black History Month STEM Quotes you need to know about! These quotes are both powerful and influential showcased in honor of black history month. Black History Month is celebrated every year during the month of February. Whether your celebration of Black History Month is studying U.S. history or honoring the black community, February is traditionally a perfect time to acknowledge and learn of the accomplishments of Black Americans.
This blog post specifically focuses on African American scientists and engineers from American biochemists and software developers to black women in STEM fields.
I hope you enjoy this blog post all about the best black history month STEM quotes.
1. Alexa Canady
Alexa Canady is the first African American woman in the U.S. to become a neurosurgeon.
“People are just not very ambitious for women still. Your son you want to be the best he can be. Your daughter you want to be happy.” – Alexa Canady
2. Alexandra Jones
Alexandra Jones is the founder and CEO of Archaeology in the Community
“Archaeology illuminates the past in a way that shines a light on those who were kept in the dark. It brings those people to the forefront of history, by telling their stories which were once silenced. ” – Alexandria Jones
3. Alice Augusta Ball
Alice Augusta Ball was an American chemist who developed a method for treating leprosy (The Ball Method)
“I work and work, and still it seems I have nothing done.” -Alice Augusta Ball
4. Annie Easley
Annie Easley is a Computer Programmer and Mathematician for NASA with significant contributions to the Centaur Rocket Project
“Don’t give up on it. Just stick with it. Don’t listen to people who always tell you it is hard, and walk away from it.”
5. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a Marine Biologist, Policy Expert, and Founder of The All We Can Save Project
“For many people who have been comfortable until now, it is seemingly impossible to accept that anything so disruptive as climate change is possible. Either it’s a hoax or things will somehow continue to be fine. [It’s a profound kind of entitlement to believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that we can go on living as we are.]” -Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
6. Brian Nord
Brian Nord is an Astrophysicist at the Germi National Accelerator Laboratory uses artificial intelligence (AI) in astronomy and physics
“I’m not afraid of [AI taking jobs] at all … I think that’s good. I think that’s the way of progress, and we’ll find new and better jobs.” -Brian Nord
7. Bria Macklin
Bria Macklin is a Data Scientist who focuses on gene editing strategies for genetic diseases
“It feels amazing to be seen specifically as a black woman in science changing the optics and the narratives.” -Bria Macklin
8. Catherine Tcheandjieu
Catherine Tcheandijeu is a Human Geneticist with a focus in applying genomics and statistics to complex disorders
“I want to make sure [Indigenous and Native American] can be correctly represented in future genomic studies, and reap the same benefits of research as others have.” -Catherine Tcheandjieu
9. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a Physicist and Women and Gender Studies Professor
“Access to a dark night sky—to see and be inspired by the universe as it really is—should be a human right, not a luxury for the chosen few.” -Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
10. Charles Turner
Charles Turner was an American behavioral scientist who studies insect behavior.
“The little bee returns with evening’s gloom, To join her comrades in the braided hive, Where, housed beside their mighty honey-comb, They dream their polity shall long survive.
11. Christine Darden
Christine Darden is the first African American woman at NASA Langley to reach Senior Executive Service and worked on supersonic aircraft noise, especially sonic boom reduction (NASA).
“I wanted to be in engineering. Men in engineering did research, gave talks, wrote and published papers, and got promoted. The women … followed the engineers’ orders.”
12. Dorthy Johnson Vaughan
Dorthy Johnson Vaughan was known as the human computer who worked for NASA
“Separate and equal are two different things. Just cause it’s the way doesn’t make it right.”
13. Edward Bouchet
Edward Bouchet was the first African American to earn a doctoral degree from an American university (source).
“Optics is an example of the different ways a human is able to see things in the world. The same goes for the color of a person’s skin and even though optics present that there are differences in color, these do not state that they should necessarily be treated as different.” -Edward Bouchet
14. Emmett Chappelle
Emmett Chappelle’s studies helped to be able to measure plant health, detect bacteria in space, and develop a method to detect life on other planets (source).
“Im still not sure if there is life on other planets. I think it’s likely. It’s not life as we know it here on Earth, but I think it’s likely that there are organisms up there…”
15. George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was a botanist known for more than 300 uses he devised for the peanuts (source).
“Start where you are, with what you have. Make something of it and never be satisfied.” -George Washington Carver
16. Gladys West
Gladys West, was known for her work contributing to the creation of the GPS.
“I always made sure I did things just right, to set an example for other people who were coming behind me, especially women.” -Gladys West
17. James E. West
James E. West is the creator of the electric microphone.
“I think I’ve had more failures than successes, but I don’t see the failures as mistakes because I always learned something from those experiences. I see them as having not achieved the initial goal, nothing more than that.” – James E. West
18. Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson successfully helped Apollo astronauts return from the Moon to Earth.
“We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, but there will always be science, engineering, and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics.” -Katherine Johnson
19. Lonnie Johnson
Lonnie Johnson famously engineered the SuperSoaker.
“Never underestimate the power of your ideas and the potential they hold. Never underestimate the power of your ideas and the potential they hold.” -Lonnie Johnson
20. Mae Carol Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison was the first African American woman in space
“Pay attention to the world around you and then find the places where you think you’re skilled. Follow your bliss — and bliss doesn’t mean it’s easy!” – Mae Carol Jemison
21. Marie M. Daly
Marie M. Daly was the first African American woman to receive a doctorate in chemistry in the United States and her studies on connected clogged arteries and high cholesterol to diet.
“Courage is like — it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: you get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.” -Marie M. Daly
22. Mark Dean
Mark Dean is the designer of the first IBM PC.
“A lot of kids growing up today aren’t told that you can be whatever you want to be. There may be obstacles, but there are no limits.”
23. Mary Jackson
Mary Jackson was the first Black female engineer.
“Sometimes they are not aware of the number of black scientists, and don’t even know of the career opportunities until it is too late” -Mary Jackson
24. Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist named one of the most influential people of 2007.
“Whether or not you can never become great at something, you can always become better at it. Don’t ever forget that! And don’t say “I’ll never be good”. You can become better! and one day you’ll wake up and you’ll find out how good you actually became.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson
25. Patricia Bath
Patricia Bath is an ophthalmologist and laser scientist who helped to advocate for blindness prevention, treatment, and cure (source).
“Do not allow your mind to be imprisoned by majority thinking. Remember that the limits of science are not the limits of imagination.”-Patricia Bath
26. Percy Julian
Percy Julian was a chemist who figured out how to synthesize important medicinal compounds, making them more affordable to mass-produce.
“I don’t think that you can possibly embrace the kind of joy which one who has worked with plants and plant structures such as I have over a period of nearly 40 years, how wonderful the plant laboratory seems” -Percy Julian
27. Vernard Lewis
Vernard Lewis is a UC Berkeley’s first African-American entomologist.
“My high school counselor said I wasn’t bright enough to go to college. I took offense to that.” “I asked him what was the best university in the country. He said, ‘UC Berkeley,’ so I decided to go there.” -Vernard Lewis
Want to learn more about Black Scientists and Inventors? Check out this YouTube Video:
I hope you enjoyed this blog post all about the best black history month STEM quotes.
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