From her Wikipedia article:
The device was completed in 1986 after Bath conducted research on lasers in Berlin and patented in 1988, making her the first African-American woman to receive a patent for a medical purpose.
This bit of trivia is actually what surprised me most. “A medical purpose” is so general, and 1988 is so late by comparison.
Ruby Bridges–the little girl featured in maybe the most famous photo of desegregation, being walked home from school by US marshals, the photo that inspired Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With”–she’s still alive. And not super old, either; she’ll turn 72 this September.
That’s the fact that blows me away about segregation.
“The past is never dead; it isn’t even past.”
Damn, it looked for a second like that US Marshal on the right was wearing a shockingly ahead-of-its-time earring on his left ear.
That’s crazy. It’s a Bluetooth earpiece.
The Loving v Virginia Supreme Court ruling, legalizing mixed race marriage, happened in 1968. I was 14 years old, so not exactly ancient history.
It’s easy to forget sometimes how recent segregation still is. It reminds me of this letter from Emory university dated 1959, less than 75 years ago, denying an applicant for being “a member of the negro race.” They only apologized for it about five years ago.
Here’s a good 2021 article from Emory University Magazine discussing Hood and his application.
Edit: My favorite paragraph:
In one of the peculiarities of the segregation era, the state of Georgia paid Black students the difference in cost to attend school out of state. “If it cost $500 a year to go to school in Georgia, and it cost $1,000 to go up there, they would pay the extra $500 so I would pay the same thing,” Hood explains. “And I would come home each semester, go down to the capitol, and reluctantly they would give me this check to take back to Loyola University.”
Yeah considering all the multi racial dance videos of the 90s it’s easy to forget how segregated the world still was
Is*
Thanks to who ever posted this. It reminded me I needed to make an eye exam appointment. Booked!
Couldn’t have done it without you.
Ta
A true visionary.
Thanks for this. I’d never heard of her. Reading her wiki, I’m not only humbled but feel grossly inadequate. RIP
Are you threatening me?
Based
90s era of american television paints an interesting picture.
