![]() ![]() ![]() She attended segregated schools in her native West Virginia then, in 1938, she was handpicked by the governor of the state to integrate the state’s graduate schools - 16 years before the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, was still two years away. The odds she faced coming into the world were grim: 32.5 years was the at-birth life expectancy for a Black baby girl born in the United States in 1918. She was born during the Spanish Flu, and she died in February 2020, as the COVID pandemic was rising. ![]() Johnson was 100 years old when President Beilock bestowed her with the medal in 2018. To my fellow recipients of the Barnard Medal of Distinction - Allyson Felix, Stacey Gabriel, Sarah Ruhl, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith - congratulations, it’s an honor for me to be in such distinguished company.Īnd I’m delighted to be able to say that I share this honor with Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician whom I wrote about in my book Hidden Figures. I’m humbled that you’ve chosen me to address you at this year’s Commencement and to participate in the Barnard Year of Science. ![]() When the rough seas of life after college inevitably crash on your shores, know that you were the equal of this first challenge. To President Beilock, members of the Board of Trustees, Distinguished Faculty, proud parents and family, and most of all, to the Barnard College graduating class of 2022: You made it! And you did it during a deadly and devastating global pandemic. ![]()
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