Enabling Others

These messages focus on individuals who have opened the doors for others through the lives that they led.

    • Alice Dunnigan: Asking Tough Questions

      Alice Dunnigan was born in Kentucky in 1906. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother took in laundry. She was raised in a strict family that valued education. She had learned to read before entering the first grade. Since the local schools only provided 10 years...

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    • Judith Cohen: Saving Apollo 13

      Apollo 13 kept the world on edge when an oxygen bank ruptured in the service module. Life support systems were disabled. The solution was to use the backup systems on the lunar module. Millions of people rejoiced when Apollo 13 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, and...

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    • Margaret McFarland: A Neighborhood Genius

      Margaret McFarland was born near Pittsburgh in 1905. Her father died when she was 5 and her mother never remarried, and she had a lifelong regret for a lack of fathering growing up. Her mother however did provide inspiration for her future interests in child...

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    • Funding the Civil Rights Movement

      Mollie Moon was born in 1912 in the state of Mississippi. She trained as a pharmacist but also studied education and social services. After a career as a pharmacist, she refocused her life’s work on to one of lifting up the status of African Americans. She worked on...

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    • Augustus Julliard – Enabling Talent

      Augustus Julliard was born at sea as his parents were immigrating to America from France. His father was a cobbler and Augustus’ upbringing was like many of middle-class Americans. He never attended college. Augustus began his career in the textile industry in...

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    • The Power of Kind Words

      Gordon Parks was born in Kansas in 1912. He had 14 older siblings. His education began in a segregated elementary school. His high school was integrated but African American students were limited in their participation in school activities. They were also discouraged...

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    • The Value of Diversity

      Joel Springarn was born in 1875 to a well-to-do Jewish family. After receiving his Ph.D. from Columbia, he continued to teach there. His degree was in English, and he focused on comparative literature. He advocated that literature should not be viewed from traditional...

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    • An Education Pioneer

      Mary Lyon was born in 1797 in Massachusetts. Her parents had a farm, and her childhood was a tough one. Mary lost her father when she was five and her mother at age 13 when she remarried and abandoned her children. Mary stayed to take care of her brother. In spite of...

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    • Like Father, Like Son

      Benjamin Davis, Jr. was born in Washington DC in 1912. At the time, his father was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. His father would later become the first African American to reach the rank of Brigadier General. At the age of 13, Benjamin had the opportunity to fly...

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    • Opening up the Military

      Benjamin Davis, Sr. was born in Washington DC in 1880. He was the grandson of slaves. While in high school, he became infatuated with the military. While his parents wanted him to go to college, he had other ideas. He lied about his age and joined the military. His...

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