Black History

Fishing With Her Father Led Joan Murrell Owens to a Career in Marine Geoscience Caption: Joan Murrell Owens

Owens said during an interview, “Never give up on your dreams, in spite of the obstacles. There have been several points in my life when a door to my planned career closed and another, totally different door, opened. Though one door may seem to close, the other door can lead to the fulfillment of your dreams.”

Published

3 years ago

April 13, 2021

Mia Lane

Joan Murrell Owens

Women of color have been underrepresented in geosciences (sciences dealing with the earth). Between 1973 and 2016, the numbers were bleak: only 20 Native American, 69 Black, and 241 Hispanic or Latino women received PhDs in all three geoscience subdisciplines combined—marine geographers, paleogeography, and physical geographers—according to Nature.com.

These numbers amount to 1.46% of all doctorates awarded in over 40 years and have made little to no movement toward change.

“A lack of diversity and inclusion is the single largest cultural problem facing geosciences today,” Kuheli Dutt, the diversity officer of Lamont-Doherty Observatory at Columbia University, told Nature Geoscience journal.

Upon graduating from the George Washington University in Wash., D.C., in 1985, Joan Murrell Owens (1933–2011), became the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in geology. Shortly after, as a coral biologist, she began to transform the understanding of the evolutionary relationships of button corals.

Owens was born in Miami. Her father, a dentist, was an avid fisherman, so the family often went on weekend fishing trips. Being so close to the Atlantic Ocean piqued her curiosity about its habitats. Thus, marine biology was always a subject she dreamed of studying.

A lover of books, “The Silent World by Jacques Cousteau” became young Owens’ favorite read. She graduated from Miami’s Booker T. Washington High School in 1950. That same year she entered Fisk University on a scholarship and soon found that marine biology courses were not offered. That was not uncommon for historically black colleges and universities during that time. She studied fine arts instead, becoming an educator at a psychiatric hospital.

Owens later became a member of Howard University’s faculty, specializing in remedial English. During the 1960s, she relocated to Newton, Mass., where she worked for the Institute for Services to Education. There she was tasked to design programs for teaching English to educationally disadvantaged students. The Upward Bound program of the U.S. Department of Education was developed from these programs.

Unfortunately, Owens suffered sickle cell anemia. Her geosciences research projects were then limited because of her inability to dive underwater to search for specimens. But that did not derail her dreams. She instead performed a laboratory project at the Smithsonian Institute, working with coral samples collected by a British expedition in 1880.

Despite all the walls she tore down to navigate her career path and follow her heart, Owens went on to contribute valuable knowledge to the field of marine science. In 1994, her work added a new species to the genus Letepsammia.

Source: https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/joan-murrell-owens

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Murrell_Owens

Image: http://www.thehundred-seven.org/womenstem.html

Mia Lane

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Oakland Post: Week of June 12-18, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 12-18, 2024

Published

2 days ago

June 14, 2024

Oakland Post

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Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Statement on 80th Anniversary of D-Day

Representative Barbara Lee (CA-12) released the following statement on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. “80 years ago, one of the largest invasions in historical warfare—and the start to the end of World War II—took place. Today, we look back to the over 2,400 American lives lost on the beaches of Normandy, remember their stories, and honor their immense bravery.

Published

3 days ago

June 13, 2024

Oakland Post

“D-Day will forever live on in history. May we honor their lives and all who have served by investing in veterans’ health care, economic security, and opportunity when they return home.”

Washington, D.C. – Representative Barbara Lee (CA-12) released the following statement on the 80^th anniversary of D-Day.

“80 years ago, one of the largest invasions in historical warfare—and the start to the end of World War II—took place. Today, we look back to the over 2,400 American lives lost on the beaches of Normandy, remember their stories, and honor their immense bravery.

“My father, Lt. Col. Garvin A. Tutt, was a Buffalo soldier in the 92^nd infantry, a racially segregated and Black-only division that was instrumental in the success of Normandy and the Allied advance. Today and every day, I think of him and all of the brave servicemembers who sacrificed for our country, even when our country didn’t love them back.

“D-Day will forever live on in history. May we honor their lives and all who have served by investing in veterans’ health care, economic security, and opportunity when they return home.”

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U.S. Rep. Kamlager-Dove Leads Discussion on Improving Black Student Learning, Test Scores

Kamlager-Dove, who represents a district that covers parts of Los Angeles County, hopes that ideas shared at the event can be incorporated into models that can impact other regions across California, where Black students continue to fall behind their peers of other races and ethnicities.

Published

6 days ago

June 10, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) moderates a panel including Dr. Kortne Edogun-Ticey, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Education during Roundtable on Equity in Education for Los Angeles Unified School District (R to L) beside Kamlager-Dove Dr. Robert Whitman, Educational Transformation Officer, Los Angeles USD; Dr. Kortne Edogun-Ticey, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Education; Keith Linton, Founder, Boys to Gentlemen, Dr. Pedro Noguera, Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and LAUSD student Jonathan McGee. Photo by Lila Brown (CBM).

By Lila Brown, California Black Media

On April 8, U.S. Congressmember Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA-37) moderated a roundtable focused on Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) strategies to improve Black student performance in classrooms.

Kamlager-Dove, who represents a district that covers parts of Los Angeles County, hopes that ideas shared at the event can be incorporated into models that can impact other regions across California, where Black students continue to fall behind their peers of other races and ethnicities.

Discussions at the event centered on LAUSD’s Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP) and other educational initiatives aimed at enhancing learning and boosting test scores.

“The Black Student Achievement Plan is unique in that it takes a community-centered approach to uplifting Black students,” said Kamlager-Dove during the event held at John Muir Middle School in Los Angeles.

“We must implement culturally responsive education in the classroom to challenge our students academically while giving them a sense of purpose,” she continued.

In 2023, nearly 70% of Black children in California fell below a passing mark on the state standardized English Language Arts exam, and only about 20% of those students were performing at grade level based on their scores on the math assessment test.

A variety of public education experts joined Kamlager on the panel, including Dr. Kortne Edogun-Ticey, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Education; Dr. Robert Whitman, Educational Transformation Officer at LAUSD; Dr. Pedro Noguera, Professor and Dean at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education; and Keith Linton, founder of the non-profit Boys to Gentlemen.

Jonathan McGee, a student who sits on the BSAP Student Advisory Council, also spoke during the panel.

The BSAP was approved by the LAUSD Board of Education in February of the 2020-21 school year. Funds have been earmarked to address the longstanding disparities in educational outcomes between Black students and their non-Black peers. Dating back to the landmark case, Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional, positive outcomes for Black students continue to lag behind district and national averages for their non-Black counterparts.

Edogun-Ticey spoke about broader investments the federal government is making in education that directly impact Black students through The White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans.

‘This administration did not shy away from the idea that we need resources for support which means billions of dollars in investment for HBCUs,” she explained.

BSAP strategies include partnering with Black families and local community; supporting the implementation of culturally and linguistically responsive and anti-racist practices; offering wrap-around support structures; and highlighting experiences that uplift the contributions of the Black community as motivation and models to develop positive Black student identity. Additionally, the BSAP provides increased staffing to support Black students’ academic and social-emotional needs.

“School districts across the country must push back against attacks on marginalized students by implementing programs like the BSAP, which should serve as a model for future initiatives,” Kamlager said.