RECOMMENDED READING: "UNHERALDED BUT UNBOWED" BY GARLAND L. THOMPSON (3959 hits)

NEW BOOK TRACES THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:

Unheralded but Unbowed: Black Scientists & Engineers who Changed the World makes it clear that "in America, you cannot do high technology without Black folks!"

PHILADELPHIA, PA, January 6, 2010 -- A question raised at a Minority Business Summit held in the halls of the U.S. Congress set journalist Garland Thompson off on a tirade, and got him thinking about a better answer than he'd heard from anybody, ultimately prompting him to write "Unheralded but Unbowed" about the Black world-beaters powering American industry today. The questioner, a young reporter for Washington Technology, had sat through a series of presentations about minority business from a multi-colored collection of entrepreneurs: Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans. Litigants in Colorado had challenged federal "set-aside" contracting policies, in place since the late Maryland Rep. Parren Mitchell began writing affirmative-action requirements into funding bills for the U.S. Department of Transportation. How could minority contracting survive, he asked, now that set-asides were being knocked away? Particularly in high technology: Now the only measure that counted would be quality.

Thompson, there reporting for a national magazine, watched perplexed as none of the Congressmen and women present answered, and the minority entrepreneurs looked embarrassed. Thompson had a question or two of his own, but put them aside to speak out on behalf of the hundreds of Black technology professionals he had covered over the years in US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine, or considered on the Selection Panel for the Black Engineer of the Year Awards.

"I came here as a reporter," Thompson said, "but this fellow deserves a real answer. And I'm surprised none of the business leaders here told him: 'Quality R Us!' So I'm going to say it loud, so everybody can hear me: You cannot do high technology in America without Black folks, because we are Dot-Center in the talent pool. The days when Blacks looked on while others moved American companies to the Front Rank of the Industrial Revolution are over. We are not standing outside the periphery looking in, we are Dot-Center in the talent pool! Quality happens because we make it happen!"

Thompson launched into an impromptu lecture on the market-making achievements of the Blacks who show up every year in Baltimore, basking in the light of recognition for reshaping industry after industry, such as Boeing's Walt Braithwaite, whose graphic markup language and exchange standard revolutionized computer-aided aircraft design, and Dr. Mark Dean, whose Color Graphics Array made the original IBM PC Time's first-ever "Machine of the Year" and whose Advanced Technology architecture set the pattern for an entire generation of personal computers. Thompson talked about Arnold Stancell, whose exploits at Mobil Chemical rewrote the book on polymer chemistry, and Don Stanford, who wrote the book on how to use Very Small Aperture Terminal satellite systems in banking, retail and Lotto sales. He cited Marshall Jones, a mechanical engineer and world-ranking expert on the use of lasers for surface treatments, who invented a new laser when he could not find one to produce the results he needed in auto manufacturing. "I could go on," Thompson said, "But I think you get my point: You cannot do high technology in America without Blacks, because we are in the center of the talent pool, in company after company and facility after facility, with results that astonish the world."

Astonished themselves, several listeners rushed forward to ask what book Thompson was quoting. "Where did you get all that stuff," one Congressional staffer asked. "We thought you were going to tell us about Black History Month." Thompson looked back and laughed. "Oh, Elijah McCoy was a great man," Thompson said, "But he's been dead for a hundred years. I'm talking about people who are walking around alive today, still working and still innovating."

That incident became the impetus propelling Thompson to write "Unheralded but Unbowed: Black Scientists & Engineers who Changed the World." When he talked about the incident to deans of the historically Black college and university engineering programs, they explained that even in their schools, no books existed to tell their students about the Black pioneers who preceded them. As Dr. Samuel White, former dean at Hampton University said, "the standard engineering history textbook has no Black pioneers in it, even though we know there were Black pioneers. In your role as a journalist, you have access to the data. So it would help us if you would write a book that puts it all into perspective."

"Unheralded but Unbowed: Black Scientists & Engineers who changed the World" grew out of such discussions. Thompson, who began writing about Blacks in the Technology Enterprise as science policy writer for the Baltimore Sun's Editorial Board during the late 1980s, has sat on Selection Panels for the Black Engineer of the Year Awards, Women of Color Technology Awards, and Emerald Honors for Minorities in Research Science for many years. That long, close involvement convinced Thompson that something more than a simple collection of profiles detailing the accomplishments of the Black major-leaguers propelling American industrial corporations to new heights was needed.

Career Communications Group, publishers of US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine and its siblings, Woman of Color and Hispanic Engineer & Information Technology, has been publicizing the life stories and exploits of people of color for more than two decades. While that is exemplary work, Thompson decided that more work was needed to "connect the dots" between the campaigns Blacks have waged for fair consideration in the industrial workplace and the Black struggle for equal rights and equality of opportunity in American society as a whole.

Thus, "Unheralded but Unbowed" limns the progress of Blacks in the Knowledge Enterprise against the backdrop of the overall fight for Civil Rights to show that the challenges and accomplishments of Black science professionals are every bit as vital to the future opportunities for Blacks in America as the roles of Blacks working in the more commonly known fields of politics, religion, sports and entertainment.

"Unheralded but Unbowed," published through createspace.com, the publish-on-demand arm of Amazon.com, is available for order from the Web site, either in a paperback book or for download to e-book readers. Createspace also has made the book available to libraries and academic institutions as well as offering wholesale pricing to bookstores and resellers.

The book was reviewed by the Council of Deans of the HBCU Engineering Schools in manuscript form. In addition, the Science Curriculum team at the School District of Philadelphia reviewed the manuscript too, and since publication the District has begun using the work in its Teacher Professional Development programs, in Social Studies as well as for teachers of mathematics and science. And among other speaking engagements this year, Thompson has been invited to appear before the upcoming meeting of the National Science Teachers Association, scheduled to convene in Philadelphia this Spring.

About the author: Thompson, a Vietnam War-era Navy electronics specialist, spent a decade working in the telecommunications industry before switching careers to become a professional journalist. Thompson is a graduate of Temple University and the Beasley School of Law. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1984, while working for the Philadelphia Inquirer as a reporter and editorial writer. In addition to The Inquirer and the Baltimore Sun, Thompson has edited the Philadelphia Tribune -- the nation's oldest Black newsweekly -- The Crisis of the NAACP and Black Issues in Higher Education. Thompson served more than seven years as editor and director of content for US Black Engineer & Information Technology and its siblings, and continues as a contributing editor.

Thompson was Philip Morris Visiting Professor of Business Journalism at Bernard M. Baruch College of the City University of New York in 1990, and served as Freedom Forum Professional in Residence at the University of Kansas from 1992-93.


"Unheralded but Unbowed: Black Scientists & Engineers who Changed the World," by Garland L. Thompson: 336 pages, with index. ISBN 978-1448673834 Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Monday, January 25th 2010 at 8:48PM
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