Detroit Free Press Desiree Cooper Column: Stargazer Turned Astronaut Credits the MLK Dream
By Desiree Cooper, Detroit Free Press
Jan. 20–According to Webster’s Dictionary, a dream is a “series of thoughts, images or emotions occurring during sleep.” Nowadays, when we speak of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of equality, it seems like one of those gauzy images that have little to do with our waking life.
But King’s dream wasn’t an illusive fantasy to Dr. Mae Jemison. It was a call to action.
“Too often people paint him like Santa — smiley and inoffensive,” said the African-American woman who broke the racial barrier on the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
“But when I think of Martin Luther King, I think of attitude and audacity.”
Jemison said King’s action on his dream made her life possible.
As a little girl growing up in Chicago, she’d gaze at the stars. “I could see myself in space when others couldn’t,” she said. “I had to learn not to limit myself because of others’ limited imagination.”
People were puzzled by her shared interest in the sciences, arts and community service. As a free and equal human being, she felt she shouldn’t have to choose between them.
At 16, she entered Stanford and majored in both chemical engineering and African-American studies, all the while cultivating her talents in dance. After earning her medical degree at Cornell University, she became a doctor in Los Angeles, but also spent more than two years as a Peace Corps physician in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
She joined NASA in 1987, and became the first woman of color into space. But she never let that achievement overshadow the other dimensions of her personality. Among the things she carried into space were a poster from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and a Bundu statue from Sierra Leone.
“For me, they were symbols of human creativity,” the Houston resident said recently during a standing-room only celebration of the slain civil rights leader sponsored by Northwest Airlines in Minneapolis. “The same kind of human creativity that launched the space shuttle.”
Since she retired from the space program in 1993, Jemison’s career has continued to defy categorization. She runs two medical technology companies dedicated to applying science to improve human life. She tirelessly promotes science literacy for children.
Her autobiography, “Find Where the Wind Goes,” is aimed at young adults to inspire them to honor their God-given creativity.
I asked Jemison what she’d say to that little Chicago girl who once imagined herself floating in space. She answered: “I’m still trying to catch up with who she intended me to be.”
That’s what the civil rights struggle is all about: Breaking down the barriers to human potential. Too often these days, King’s vision seems to be stuck in the realm of dreams. How do we make it reality?
Jemison’s answer was simple: “The best way to make dreams come true is to wake up.”
Contact DESIREE COOPER at dcooper@freepress.com. Listen to her on American Public Media’s “Weekend America,” 2-4 p.m. Saturdays on WUOM-FM (91.7).
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