Sandra Williams Ortega was an officer in the U.S. Air Force for the state of Maryland. She is known as the first African American woman in the state to have an officer commission in the Air Force and was accepted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 2018. She was born in 1937 in Baltimore. [1] [2] [3]
Jacqueline Cochran was an American pilot and business executive. She pioneered women's aviation as one of the most prominent racing pilots of her generation. She set numerous records and was the first woman to break the sound barrier on 18 May 1953. Cochran was the wartime head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (1943–1944), which employed about 1000 civilian American women in a non-combat role to ferry planes from factories to port cities. Cochran was later a sponsor of the Mercury 13 women astronaut program.
Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. is an American aerospace engineer, retired United States Air Force (USAF) officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut, in which capacity he became the first African American to go to space. While assigned to NASA, he remained a USAF officer rising to the rank of colonel. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the Orbiter Challenger on the mission STS-8, he became the first African American in space as well as the second black person in space, after Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez.
Nancy Harkness Love, born Hannah Lincoln Harkness, was an American pilot and airplane commander during World War II. She earned her pilot's license at age 16. She worked as a test pilot and air racer in the 1930s. During World War II she convinced Colonel William H. Tunner of the U.S. Army Air Forces to look to set up a group of female pilots to ferry aircraft from factories to air bases. This proposal was eventually approved as the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. Love commanded this unit and later all ferrying operations in the newly formed Women Airforce Service Pilots. She was awarded the Air Medal for her work during the war and was appointed lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force Reserve in 1948.
Enolia Pettigen McMillan was an American educator, civil rights activist, and community leader. She was the first female national president of the NAACP.
African Americans are an ethnic group in the United States. The first achievements by African Americans in diverse fields have historically marked footholds, often leading to more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "breaking the color barrier".
Major General Jeanne Marjorie Holm was the first female one-star general of the United States Air Force and the first female two-star general in any service branch of the United States. Holm was a driving force behind the expansion of women's roles in the Air Force.
Willa Beatrice Brown was an American aviator, lobbyist, teacher, and civil rights activist. She was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license in the United States, the first African American woman to run for the United States Congress, first African American officer in the Civil Air Patrol, and first woman in the U.S. to have both a pilot's license and an aircraft mechanic's license.
The Maryland Women's Hall of Fame (MWHF) recognizes significant achievements and statewide contributions made by women who are Maryland-natives or state residents. It was established in 1985 by the Maryland Commission for Women and the Women Legislators of Maryland. Honorees are selected by an independent committee each year and are inducted in March during Women's History Month.
Emily Joyce Howell Warner was an American airline pilot and the first woman captain of a scheduled U.S. airline.
Martha Ellicott Tyson was an Elder of the Quaker Meeting in Baltimore, an anti-slavery and women's rights advocate, historian, and a co-founder of Swarthmore College. She was married to Nathan Tyson, a merchant whose father was the emancipator and abolitionist Elisha Tyson. She was the great-great grandmother of Maryland state senator James A. Clark Jr. (1918–2006). She was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 1988.
Edith Irby Jones was an American physician who was the first woman president of the National Medical Association and a founding member of the Association of Black Cardiologists. She was honored by many awards, including induction into both the University of Arkansas College of Medicine Hall of Fame and the inaugural group of women inducted into the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame. She was the first African American to be accepted as a non-segregated student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the first black student to attend racially mixed classes in the American South. She was the first African American to graduate from a southern medical school, first black intern in the state of Arkansas, and later first black intern at Baylor College of Medicine.
Marion Weyant "Babe" Ruth was an American aviator and aviation instructor. She was inducted into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame, the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame, and the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame during her lifetime.
Mary Digges Lee was the "First Lady of Maryland" during portions of the American Revolution, while her husband, Thomas Sim Lee, was the state's governor. Lee was later inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame.
Jessie Pharr Slaton (1908–1983) was an American lawyer. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1984 shortly after her death on Korean Air Lines Flight 007.
Oleta Lawanda Crain was an African-American military officer, federal civil servant, and advocate for black women's rights and desegregation. Out of 300 women nationwide who entered officer training in the U.S. military in 1943, she was one of the three African Americans. She served in the United States Air Force for 20 years, retiring with the rank of major. In 1964 she began working for the United States Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., becoming regional administrator of its Women's Bureau in Denver, Colorado, in 1984. She traveled and spoke extensively to women about employment rights, wages, and career opportunities. She received numerous awards and honors, and was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1988.
Sandra M. Scott is a former United States Air Force (USAF) officer. Scott was among the first ten women pilots in the USAF.
Leslie Rosenberg Wolfe was an American women's rights activist, known for her work as the longtime leader of the Center for Women Policy Studies. She particularly focused her activism on the intersection of racism and sexism faced by women of color.
Tara Heiss was an American women's basketball player. A 5-foot-6-inch (1.68 m) point guard who played college basketball for the Maryland Terrapins from 1975 to 1978, she also was a member of the 1980 US Olympic team and played in the Women's Professional Basketball League. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, the University of Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame, and the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame. Many consider her the best point guard in the history of US women's basketball.
Krista McFarren is a former American rugby union player and athlete. She was a radiologist in the United States Air Force and rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel before she retired from active duty in 2001.
Freddye Harper Williams was an American newspaper columnist, management analyst, and state legislator in Oklahoma. She served five terms in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. She was a Democrat. She represented the 99th district.
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