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Subject: "Post dope/slept-on achievements/figures in black history " Previous topic | Next topic
Wordsmith
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941 posts
Thu Feb-02-17 09:30 PM

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"Post dope/slept-on achievements/figures in black history "


  

          

Yeah, we're up on MLK, Malcolm, Rosa Parks, Madame CJ Walker, Thurgood Marshall, etc, etc.

Post up some slept-on yet, significant figures (and their achievements) in black history that have impacted or personally inspired YOU.

  

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Topic Outline
Subject Author Message Date ID
Philip Emeagwali - A Father of the Internet
Feb 02nd 2017
1
Lonnie Johnson (inventor)
Feb 02nd 2017
2
Ray Gilstrap - Smartest Guy I've Ever Met
Feb 02nd 2017
3
Andrew “Rube” Foster - organizer of the Negro Baseball League
Feb 03rd 2017
4
Anna Julia Cooper and Octavius V. Catto
Feb 03rd 2017
5

Selah
Member since Jun 05th 2002
16484 posts
Thu Feb-02-17 10:05 PM

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1. "Philip Emeagwali - A Father of the Internet"
In response to Reply # 0


          

website - http://emeagwali.com/Biography :

Dr Emeagwali Philip (b. August 23, 1954), is a Nigerian computer scientist. Philip Emeagwali was voted the 35th greatest African of all time in a survey for New African magazine, it was announced on August 26, 2004. Emeagwali also ranked as the greatest African scientist ever.He first entered the limelight in 1989 when he won the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for his work with massively parallel computers. He programmed the Connection Machine to compute a world record 3.1 billion calculations per second using 65,536 processors to simulate oil reservoirs. With over 41 inventions submitted to the U.S.

The child of a poor Nigerian family, Emeagwali was largely self-taught in the sciences until 1974, when he won a scholarship to Oregon State University.

He was born in Akure (Nigeria) in 1954. His school experience was much the same as other native African children. He even had to drop out of school at the age of 14 because his father could not pay his school fees and he was also conscripted into the Biafran war. During his few early years in school, Philip showed a proficiency in mathematics. His father encouraged him to continue his education and even tried to tutor him until Philip "knew more than he did."

After dropping out of high school Philip immersed himself in the public library, reading and studying such subjects as college-level mathematics, physics chemistry and English. When he was 17, he received a scholarship to Oregon State University. He arrived at the University in 1974 and has since earned four other degrees - a Ph.D. in Scientific Computing from the University of Michigan along with two Masters Degrees from the George Washington University.

He uses his mathematical and computer expertise to develop methods for extracting more petroleum from oil fields. Future applications for Emeagwali's breakthroughs with the use of data generated by massively parallel computers ends not only in internet applications but will include weather forecasting and the study of global warming.

This record of achievements even surpassed the expensive super computers in the U.S. He used his computer to help scientists understand how oil flowed underground. The crux of the discovery was that Emeagwali had programmed each of the microprocessors to talk to six neighboring microprocessors at the same time.

The success of this record-breaking experiment meant that there was now a practical and inexpensive way to use machines like this to speak to each other all over the world. Within a few years, the oil industry had seized upon this idea, then called the Hyperball International Network creating a virtual world wide web of ultrafast digital communication.

The discovery earned him the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers' Gordon Bell Prize in 1989, considered the Nobel Prize of computing, and he was later hailed as one of the fathers of the Internet. Since then, he has won more than 100 prizes for his work and Apple computer has used his microprocessor technology in their Power Mac G4 model. Today he lives in Washington with his wife and son. His wife Dale Brown Emeagwali is a well-known microbiologist and cancer researcher.

For someone who was born with little, Philip Emeagwali was able to achieve a lot and has served as an inspiration to millions of people, especially in Nigeria. Former United States President Bill Clinton summed up worldwide sentiment by declaring Emeagwali "One of the great minds of the Information ".

  

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Selah
Member since Jun 05th 2002
16484 posts
Thu Feb-02-17 10:16 PM

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2. "Lonnie Johnson (inventor)"
In response to Reply # 0


          

Lonnie Johnson is the founder and president of Johnson Research and Development Co., Inc.; Excellatron Solid State, LLC; Johnson Electro-Mechanical Systems, LLC; and Johnson Real Estate Investments, LLC.

He attended W. H. Council Elementary School and Williamson High School in Mobile, Alabama.

At the age of 18, as a senior in high school, Lonnie won first place in a national science competition at the University of Alabama for his invention of a remote controlled robot, called "Linex," which he made from junkyard scraps.

He attended Tuskegee University on a mathematics scholarship and was elected to the Pi Tau Sigma National Engineering Honor Society. He graduated with distinction with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1973, and completed a Master of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering two years later. In 2001, Lonnie was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Science from Tuskegee University, and currently serves on the faculty as an adjunct professor.

As a Captain in the Air Force, he was awarded the Air Force Achievement Medal, and received the Air Force Commendation Medal on two separate occasions. During his Air Force career he received the CINC SAC Nomination for Astronaut Training as a space shuttle mission specialist.

He served as Chief, Data Management Branch of the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron, Strategic Air Command, Edwards AFB, California. He also served as Manager, Advanced Space Systems Requirements for Strategic Air Command (SAC) Headquarters, Offutt AFB, Nebraska; and as Acting Chief, Space Nuclear Power Safety Section of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Kirkland AFB, New Mexico.

During his nine year career with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, he received multiple achievement awards from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for his work on spacecraft system design. He worked on the Galileo and Mars Observer projects, and was instrumental in the Cassini (Saturn) Mission.

In 1992, Lonnie’s invention, the Super Soaker® water gun, generated over $200 million in retail sales. Total retail sales to date are close to one billion dollars. In 2000, Lonnie was named to the Inventor Hall of Fame for his invention of the Super Soaker®.

Also in 1992, the Cobb County, Georgia Chamber of Commerce named Johnson Research and Development the "Small Business of the Year."

Articles on Lonnie Johnson have been featured in a number of publications including Inventor’s Digest, the New York Times, and Time Magazine. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and was featured in a Science Times/National Geographic television segment.

Lonnie Johnson currently holds over 80 patents and has over 20 more pending. He has authored six technical publications. Additional patents are held by his companies, Johnson Research and Development, Excellatron Solid State, and Johnson Electro-Mechanical Systems.

Johnson serves on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Alliance for Children and the Hank Aaron "Chasing the Dream" Foundation; and has served on the Board of the Commonwealth National Bank.

  

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Selah
Member since Jun 05th 2002
16484 posts
Thu Feb-02-17 10:25 PM

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3. "Ray Gilstrap - Smartest Guy I've Ever Met"
In response to Reply # 0


          

NASA Ames Research Center - Senior Information Technology Consultant

Provides technical leadership and guidance to missions and projects needing innovative or non-standard networking solutions, and serve as technical lead for root domain name server operations. Focus areas include hybrid and rapidly deployable network architectures, wireless sensor networks for space missions, Internet of Things, and virtual collaboration.

Chief Technology Officer for Information Technology - NASA Ames Research Center ]

Identified and evaluated key technologies and technology trends with the potential to enhance IT services for NASA users, projects, and missions; championed innovative Ames IT projects seeking funding and Agency visibility; and established and maintained partnerships with external organizations to facilitate collaboration and technology exchange with Ames researchers. Focus areas included collaboration tools and mobility/bring your own device (BYOD).

  

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The3rdOne
Charter member
9105 posts
Fri Feb-03-17 10:35 AM

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4. "Andrew “Rube” Foster - organizer of the Negro Baseball League"
In response to Reply # 0


  

          

Yes Jackie broke the barrier, but this man had us OWNING the barrier


https://www.nlbm.com/s/history.htm


African-Americans began to play baseball in the late 1800s on military teams, college teams, and company teams. They eventually found their way to professional teams with white players. Moses Fleetwood Walker and Bud Fowler were among the first to participate. However, racism and “Jim Crow” laws would force them from these teams by 1900. Thus, black players formed their own units, “barnstorming” around the country to play anyone who would challenge them.

In 1920, an organized league structure was formed under the guidance of Andrew “Rube” Foster—a former player, manager, and owner for the Chicago American Giants. In a meeting held at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Mo., Foster and a few other Midwestern team owners joined to form the Negro National League. Soon, rival leagues formed in Eastern and Southern states, bringing the thrills and innovative play of black baseball to major urban centers and rural country sides in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. The Leagues maintained a high level of professional skill and became centerpieces for economic development in many black communities.

In 1945, Major League Baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers recruited Jackie Robinson from the Kansas City Monarchs. Robinson now becomes the first African-American in the modern era to play on a Major League roster.

While this historic event was a key moment in baseball and civil rights history, it prompted the decline of the Negro Leagues. The best black players were now recruited for the Major Leagues, and black fans followed.

The last Negro Leagues teams folded in the early 1960s, but their legacy lives on through the surviving players and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

  

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afrogirl_lost
Member since May 22nd 2012
3062 posts
Fri Feb-03-17 11:01 AM

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5. "Anna Julia Cooper and Octavius V. Catto"
In response to Reply # 0


          

http://ajccenter.wfu.edu/about-anna-julia-cooper/

http://www.ushistory.org/people/catto.htm

  

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