Underpaid and Discriminated Against

Annie Jump Cannon was a pioneering astronomer who specializesd in the classification of stellar spectra.

Born in 1863, she was the eldest daughter of Deleware State Senator Wilson Cannon and Mary.  Annie Cannon was inspired by her mother to pursue science.  They would often open the trapdoor to the roof of their home so they could watch the stars in the small observatory the two of them had built.

 One of the first women from Delaware to attend college, she was her class valedictorian when she graduated from Wellesley College, where she studied physics and astronomy despite the fact she experienced progressive hearing loss starting at a young age.

In 1896, she was hired as a “woman computer” at the Harvard College Observatory, along with another prominent deaf astronomer, Henrietta Swan Leavitt.

The work involved looking at photos of stars and calculating their brightness, position, and color. Unfortunately the two were paid between 25 and 50 cents an hour—half the rate paid to men doing similar work.  This, however, did not stop Cannon from making major scientific discoveries.

In a catalog of 1,122 stars published in 1901 Cannon drastically simplified classifying stars.  It was soon recognized that Cannon was actually classifying stars according to their temperature and her spectral classifications were universally adopted.  In 1922 the International Astronomical Union adopted Cannon's method as the official spectral classification system.

She eventually obtained and classified spectra for more than 225,000 stars.  Her work was published in nine volumes as the Henry Draper Catalogue (1918-24).

In addition to her scientific work, Cannon also worked for women’s rights. She was dedicated to fighting for women’s suffrage and was a member of the National Women’s Party. In 1923, Cannon was voted one of the 12 greatest living women in America by the National League of Women Voters.

After decades of hard work, Cannon was finally appointed a permanent faculty position at the Harvard College Observatory in 1938. Although she officially retired two years later, Cannon worked in the observatory all the way up until her death in 1941.

Annie Jump Cannon died in April of 1941 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was seventy-seven years old.

For more stories of remarkable women, see HERSTORY on womensvoicesmedia.org

 

 

 

Helen Appo Cook was born in the state of New York in 1837, and died in Washington, D.C. of pneumonia and heart failure in 1913. She was born to William Appo and Elizabeth Brady Appo, both African American. Her father was a musician, who taught both music and French when he was not performing, and her mother owned a millinery business. Not much is known concerning Cook's upbringing. It is believed that she was well-educated, as she came from a prominent family, and it has been reported that she could speak French and play the organ with great skill. Through her mother, Helen Appo Cook became familiar with the cause of women's rights. In a letter to Susan B. Anthony in 1898, Cook describes accompanying her mother at a young age to the home of Lucretia Mott where she listened to several speakers discuss human freedom and women's rights. These experiences led her to attend the first suffrage conference held in Washington D.C., which she describes as a disappointment in that women's suffrage was completely ignored, and the suffrage of newly emancipated slaves was the main topic of concern.

In 1864, Helen Appo married John Francis Cook, Jr. and moved to Washington, D.C. where her husband was an educator and tax collector. Together they had five children. The Cook family was one of the most prominent and wealthy black families in the nation's capital at the time. Her in-laws were known for their work in education, religion, politics, and community service.

Upon moving to Washington, D.C., Helen Appo Cook took an interest in the situation of black women. Though some sources report Helen Cook to have been a mere housewife, she was actually a key leader in the women's club movement. In 1892, Cook began working with the Colored Women's League and became its first president, a role that she would continue to fill until 1903. The purpose of the Colored Women's League was to collect facts regarding the moral, social and intellectual development of blacks, to foster unity, to encourage progress, and to determine how best to promote the interests of blacks. The League also held sewing classes, mothers' meetings, held garden parties to raise funds for day nurseries, and offered night classes to black mothers.

In 1895, Cook traveled to Boston where she attended the First National Conference of Colored Women of America. The conference was called in response to an assault on the character of black women by the Missouri Press Association, and lasted for three days. Cook was elected vice president of the conference, and on July 29^th addressed her peers calling for unity among black women through the creation of a national league. As a result of the conference, the National Federation of Afro-American Women was created with the goal of restoring the reputation of all black women across the country. A year later, in 1896, Cook's vision of a national league came to fruition when the Colored Women's League and the National Federation of Afro-American Women consolidated under the National Association of Colored Women. The consolidation was the result of much negotiation between the two clubs concerning leadership. The NACW was placed under the leadership of elite and well-educated women (including Helen Cook), who viewed racial uplift as a means of maintaining their own social status. However, Cook has been documented as being genuinely concerned with the welfare of black women and children.

In 1898, Cook joined W.E.B. Du Bois at the Congress of Mothers Conference. In her speech "We Have Been Hindered: How Can We Be Help?" (See p. 50 of Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention of the National Congress of Mothers) Cook denounced the tendency for whites to identify negative behavior traits as inherent among blacks. Instead, Cook explained that such traits were the effects of poverty and prejudice, to which blacks had disproportionately fallen victim. In 1906 at the age of sixty-nine, Cook continued her reform efforts by joining the Niagara Movement. Led by Du Bois, the Niagara Movement explicitly and forcefully condemned racial discrimination and segregation. Its members, like Helen Cook, demanded economic and educational opportunities, as well as the right to vote for both black men and women.

Helen Appo Cook's spirit as a leader is best captured in an article from the Washington Colored Women, which noted "Under her intelligent, tactful and energetic leadership a magnificent organization has been perfected, and many reforms helpful to our women, have been instituted."

By Ciara VanCour, undergraduate student: SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam, NY

https://documents.alexahttps://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1009623892nderstreet.com/d/1009623892

Sources:

Wikipedia sketch of Helen A. Cook. Accessed online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Appo_Cook.

Report of the Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention of the National Congress of Mothers, Held in the City of Washington, D.C., May 2nd-7th, 1898, by The National Congress of Mothers. (Philadelphia, PA: Geo F. Lasher, 1899).

Carle, Susan D. Defining the Struggle: National Organizing for Racial Justice, 1880-1915. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford U.P., 2015.

Gordon, Ann D. The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: An Awful Hush, 1895 to 1906. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers U.P., 2013

Moore, Jacqueline M. Leading the Race: The Transformation of the Black Elite in the Nation's Capital, 1880-1920. Charlottesville, Va: U of Virginia P, 1999.

Smith, Jessie Carney. Notable Black American Women. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.

Washington Colored American (Washington), May 27, 1899, quoted in Jessie Carney Smith, Notable Black American Women, Book II (Detroit: Gale Research, 1992), 139.

"We Have Been Hindered" speech can be found at:

"Congress of Mothers . . . Mrs. Helen A. Cook's Eloquent Defense of Negro Character—the Spirit of Imitation and Environment Responsible for Alleged Race Traits and Tendencies." Washington Colored American, June 4, 1898.

Find-a-grave death record at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/220040598/helen-cook.

 

Deftly negotiating between Hispano, Anglo, and American Indian worlds throughout her life, Adelina Isabel Emilia Luna Otero was born on October 23, 1881 on her family’s hacienda near Los Lunas, New Mexico.

The Otero family were wealthy and politically powerful in the Rio Abajo (Lower River) region of what is now New Mexico. The family of her mother, Eloisa Luna Otero, were descended from some of the earliest colonists in New Mexico; the family of her father, Manuel B. Otero, traced his lineage to the Spanish occupation of the area in the 1700s. As a child, she was known as Adelina Otero; as an adult, friends and family called her Nina.

Once railroads arrived in the region in 1881, white immigrants (known as Anglos) began traveling west in large numbers, actively displacing the Native American, Spanish, and Mexican populations who were already there (though the Spanish had already displaced many of the Indigenous people of the area). When Nina was not quite two years old, her father was shot and killed by an Anglo squatter who had moved on to the family’s land. A few years later, in 1886, her mother remarried. Alfred Maurice Bergere, who had family roots in Italy, was an Englishman who immigrated to the United States when he was sixteen years old. An Anglo, he was among those who moved west, arriving in New Mexico in 1880. Nina grew up in a household of twelve children, including her two younger brothers and her nine half siblings.

All of the Bergere children were educated. Nina attended St. Vincent’s Academy in Albuquerque until she was eleven years old, when she went to St. Louis Missouri to attend Maryville College of the Sacred Heart (now Maryville University) for two more years. She returned home to her family’s hacienda when she was 13. She helped educate her siblings and contributed to the work on the family ranch -- experiences she recorded in her book, Old Spain in Our Southwest.

The family moved to Santa Fe in the New Mexico Territory when Nina was sixteen, after Alfred Bergere was hired as a judicial clerk.[1] Nina became a regular fixture in the social life of the Santa Fe elite, described as “a graceful, intelligent young woman with an indomitable disposition,” and “high spirited and independent.” She met her husband, Rawson D. Warren, in 1907. Thirty five years old, he was the commanding officer of the Fifth US Cavalry stationed at Fort Wingate, near Gallup, New Mexico.[2] Nina, who was 26 at the time, married Warren on June 25, 1908 becoming Nina Otero-Warren.  After their Santa Fe wedding, Nina and Rawson moved back to Fort Wingate. Unhappy in her marriage, Nina divorced her husband after only two years, and returned to Santa Fe.

Since divorce was strongly frowned upon in both Anglo and Hispano cultures, Nina described herself as a widow, and kept Otero-Warren as her last name. She became active in New Mexico politics, and worked towards women’s suffrage. In 1912 she moved to New York City to keep house for her younger half-brother, Luna Bergere, who was studying at Columbia University. While in New York City, Nina volunteered at a settlement house in the city.[3] When Nina’s mother died in 1914, she -- the eldest daughter -- moved back to Santa Fe, and as was expected of her, took over the household duties, which she took up as well as her activist work. Her suffrage work caught the attention of Alice Paul, who tapped Nina in 1917 to head the New Mexico chapter of the Congressional Union (precursor to the National Woman’s Party). Paul and other suffragists had realized that the support of Hispano’s in New Mexico was crucial to winning suffrage; Nina was an ideal choice. She insisted that suffrage literature be published in both English and Spanish, in order to reach the widest audience.

Nina certainly had enough family money that she did not have to work. And yet, in 1918, while still working for suffrage and taking care of her family, Otero-Warren took the job as Superintendent of Public Schools in Santa Fe County -- a job she held until 1929, working to improve the conditions in rural Hispano and Native American communities. During this time, the federal government was pressuring for assimilation of non-whites, including Native American and Hispano people, into white America. This assimilation meant loss of traditional language, customs, and often family ties. As Superintendent of Public Schools, Nina worked to balance the demands of the federal government and her pride in her Spanish cultural heritage. For example, she argued that both Spanish and English be allowed in schools, despite the federal mandate of English-only. For a few years beginning in 1923, she was also appointed Santa Fe County’s Inspector of Indian Schools. She was angered by what she observed in the schools, and criticized the federal government’s Indian school system for the terrible conditions she observed.
 
In 1921, Otero-Warren ran for federal office, campaigning to be the Republican Party nominee for New Mexico to the US House of Representatives. She won the nomination, but lost the election by less than nine percent. She remained politically and socially active, and served as the Chairman of New Mexico’s Board of Health; an executive board member of the American Red Cross; and director of an adult literacy program in New Mexico for the Works Projects Administration.

Throughout her life, Nina was known both for her proper, mannered expectations of others and her unconventional personal life. Nina never remarried or had children of her own, but served as “La Nina” or godmother to her siblings, nieces and nephews, and arguably to her community. In the early 1930s, she and her partner Mamie Meadors  -- whom she had met in the 1920s -- homesteaded, establishing a ranch called “Las Dos” (The Two Women) twelve miles outside of Santa Fe. They paid $67.40 for two homestead applications, and agreed to spend an average of five months a year living on their homestead, and to improve the land by building two houses, fencing the property (1,257 acres), cultivating the land, and maintaining the road for five years. Meeting these homesteading requirements, spelled out in the Homesteading Act of 1862, meant that they received title to the land. In 1947, Nina and Mamie established a real estate and insurance company, also called “Las Dos” in Santa Fe. When Mamie died in 1951, Nina continued running the business until her death. Whether their relationship was intimate is unknown, but they lived and worked together for over twenty years. Later in life, Nina was as a “regular annual apparition” at Santa Fe’s Hysterical/Historical parade with openly-gay poet, Witter Bynner.
 
It was in the 1930s that Nina took to writing. In May 1931, she wrote “My People” for an issue of Survey Graphic with the theme of “Mexicans in Our Midst: Newest and Oldest Settlers of the Southwest.” Other contributors to this issue included D.H. Lawrence, Ansel Adams, Diego Rivera, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Her book, Old Spain in Our Southwest was published in 1936.

Nina died on January 3, 1965 in the Santa Fe home she grew up in. She had been administering the property after the death of her brother two years’ prior.

The National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/
Notes:
[1] New Mexico did not become a state until 1910. The Alfred M. Bergere House, 135 Grant Ave, Santa Fe, New Mexico was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 1, 1975.

[2] Fort Wingate Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 26, 1978.

[3] Settlement houses were established by middle-class women in low-income urban areas. Settlement workers would live in the houses, with the goal of sharing knowledge and culture with their working class and poor neighbors. Settlement houses provided services like education, daycare, and health care for the communities in which they were located. One of the best known settlement houses in America was Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago.

Sources:
Historic Santa Fe Foundation. “A.M. Bergere House,” Historic Santa Fe Foundation.

Las Dos, New Mexico. “The Homestead Legacy: Luna Bergere Otero Family.”

Las Dos, New Mexico. “Las Dos: Two Women Homesteaders.”

Massmann, Ann M. “Adelina ‘Nina’ Otero-Warren: A Spanish-American Cultural Broker.” Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 42, no. 4 (2000): 877-896.

Morningstar, Amadea. “Nina Otero-Warren: A Graceful Non-Conformist.” The Santa Fe New Mexican, August 20, 1995.

New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative. “Nina Otero-Warren.”

Ybarra, Priscilla Solis. “Nina Otero,” New Mexico History.

Dr. Deborah Ann Turner   (1950 – 2024) Described as a fierce advocate and fighter for voting rights and women’s rights; Dr. Deborah Ann Turner, was the 20th President of the League of Women Voters - U.S.  Dr. Turner had worked with her state and local chapters of the League before moving to the national organization. Turner was elected to the League’s national board of directors in 2016, where she served on the Finance Committee and Governance Committee, and chaired the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. As chair of the DEI Committee, Deborah and her colleagues focused on organizational culture changes to the League’s mission work, emphasizing, not only racial equity, but also intergenerational dynamics, socioeconomic differences, gender identity, and interpersonal engagement. , She was born in Mason City, Iowa in 1950 and graduated from Mason City High School in 1969. In 1973 she received a B.S. degree in distributed studies/ zoology, chemistry and psychology from Iowa State University. She received her MD from the University of Iowa in 1978 where she completed her Residency in OB-Gyn.  She completed her fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Turner became the first African-American certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the specialty of gynecologic oncology. In 2007 she received her JD from Drake University.    Dr. Turner practiced gynecologic oncology for 35 years, enhancing university programs at the University of Nebraska, the University of Iowa, and the Medical College of Wisconsin teaching residents and students. She also served the private sector, bringing her specialty to Genesis Medical Center in Davenport, IA, Mercy Cancer Center in Mason City, IA, and Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines.  In July 2015, she left active practice to become Vice President of International Programs at the Iowa-based Outreach Program. She participated in twelve medical missions to Tanzania and worked with Singida’s Medical Center, Outreach’s Children’s Feeding Centers, and Rotary International. Beginning in 2016 she became Associate Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of North Central States. Among Dr. Turner’s numerous awards was her induction into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 2013.  She received the Gertrude Rush Award from the National Bar Association in 2015 and was awarded the Louise Noun Visionary Women of the Year award from the Young Women's Resource Center Des Moines in 2018.  Her most treasured award was a certificate from the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Care.  In 2022, Fortune Magazine named her a "Marquis Who's Who" top professional for her work with LWV.

Judy Heumann was an internationally recognized advocate for the rights of disabled people. She was widely regarded as “the mother” of the Disability Rights Movement. At 18-months-old, Judy contracted polio in Brooklyn, New York and began to use a wheelchair for mobility. She was denied the right to attend school at the age of five because she was considered a "fire hazard." Later in life, Judy was denied her teaching license by the same school district. After passing her oral and written exams, she was failed on her medical exam because she could not walk. Judy sued the New York Board of Education and Judge Constance Baker Motley (the first Black female federal judge) strongly suggested the board reconsider. They did and Judy went on to become the first wheelchair user to teach in the state of New York.

In 1977, Judy was a leader in the historic 504 Sit-In in San Francisco. This 26-day protest (the longest sit-in at a federal building to date) led to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act being signed into law. Judy was instrumental in the development and implementation of other legislation including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These pieces of legislation have been integral in advancing the inclusion of disabled people in the US and around the world.

From 1993 to 2001, Judy served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education. Judy then served as the World Bank's first Adviser on Disability and Development from 2002 to 2006. In this position, she led the World Bank's disability work to expand its knowledge and capability to work with governments and civil society on including disability in the global conversation. In 2010, President Obama appointed Judy as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State, where she served until 2017.  Mayor Fenty of D.C. appointed Judy as the first Director for the Department on Disability Services, where she was responsible for the Developmental Disability Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration. She also was a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation, where she produced the white paper Road Map for Inclusion.

Judy was a founding member of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living which was the first grassroots center in the United States and helped to launch the Independent Living Movement both nationally and globally. In 1983, Judy co-founded the World Institute on Disability (WID) with Ed Roberts and Joan Leon, as one of the first global disability rights organizations founded and continually led by people with disabilities that works to fully integrate people with disabilities into the communities around them via research, policy, and consulting efforts. Throughout her life, Judy served on a number of non-profit boards, including the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Humanity and Inclusion, Human Rights Watch, United States International Council on Disability, and Save the Children. 

Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, written by Judy with co-author Kristen Joiner, was published by Beacon Press in 2020. Following in 2021 was the Young Adult version, Rolling Warrior. Both audiobooks are read by Ali Stroker, the first wheelchair user to perform on Broadway. After a four studio bidding war, Being Heumann’s movie adaptation will be done by Apple TV+ with producer David Permut (Hacksaw Ridge) and writer/director Sian Heder (Academy Award Winning ‘Best Picture’ CODA).

Judy is featured in Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, the 2020 award winning, Oscar-nominated documentary film, directed by James LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham and produced by the Obama Higher Ground Production Company. She has been featured in numerous other documentaries on the history of the disability rights movement, including Lives Worth Living and the Power of 504. She delivered a TED talk in 2016, “Our Fight for Disability Rights- and Why We’re Not Done Yet”. Her story was also told on Comedy Central’s Drunk History in early 2018, in which she was portrayed by Ali Stroker. In 2020, Judy was featured on the Trevor Noah show. She also hosted an award-winning podcast called The Heumann Perspective, featuring a variety of members from the disability community. 

Judy graduated from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY in 1969 and received her Master’s in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. She was awarded several honorary doctorate degrees from universities across the United States including New York University, University of Pittsburgh, Middlebury College, and Smith College. She also received numerous awards including being the first recipient of the Henry B. Betts Award in recognition of efforts to significantly improve the quality of life for people with disabilities and the Max Starkloff Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council on Independent Living. 

Judy Heumann passed away on March 4th, 2023 at the age of 75. News of her passing was reported on by major outlets in the United States and around the world.   Judy Heumann passed away on March 4th, 2023 at the age of 75. Stay up-to-date on projects in Judy’s honor by following Judy Heumann Legacy on Instagram and Facebook or subscribing to the Judy Heumann Newsletter.

  Learn more about the life and work of Judy:             https://judithheumann.com/