# data[].attributes.body
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/pga.04518/

# data[].attributes.body
By Ellen Levine

# data[].attributes.body
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/the-underground-railroad

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1619, the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia, one of the newly formed 13 American Colonies. They had been kidnapped from their homes and were forced to work on tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations from Maryland and Virginia all the way to Georgia. According to the law, they had no rights and were not free.

Escaping to freedom was anything but easy for an enslaved person. It required courage, wit, and determination. Many fled by themselves or in small numbers, often without food, clothes, or money. Leaving behind family members, they traveled hundreds of miles across unknown lands and rivers by foot, boat, or wagon. To be captured would mean being sent back to the plantation, where they would be whipped, beaten, or killed.

Not everyone believed that slavery should be allowed and wanted to aid these fugitives, or runaways, in their escape to freedom. As more and more people secretly offered to help, a freedom movement emerged. It became known as the Underground Railroad.

How the Underground Railroad started

Americans had been helping enslaved people escape since the late 1700s, and by the early 1800s, the secret group of individuals and places that many fugitives relied on became known as the Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad was not underground, and it wasn't an actual train. It was a network of people, both whites and free Blacks, who worked together to help runaways from slaveholding states travel to states in the North and to the country of Canada, where slavery was illegal.

No one knows exactly where the term Underground Railroad came from. "Underground" implies secrecy; "railroad" refers to the way people followed certain routes-with stops along the way-to get to their destination. The phrase wasn't something that one person decided to name the system but a term that people started using as more and more fugitives escaped through this network.

The operators of the Underground Railroad were abolitionists, or people who opposed slavery. Many were members of organized groups that helped runaways, such as the Quaker religion and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Often called "agents," these operators used their homes, churches, barns, and schoolhouses as "stations." There, fugitives could stop and receive shelter, food, clothing, protection, and money until they were ready to move to the next station.

A dangerous journey

The Underground Railroad was secret. Nothing was written down about where to go or who would help. So once enslaved people decided to make the journey to freedom, they had to listen for tips from other enslaved people, who might have heard tips from other enslaved people. If they were lucky, they traveled with a conductor, or a person who safely guided enslaved people from station to station.

Whether alone or with a conductor, the journey was dangerous. Slave catchers with guns and dogs roamed the area looking for runaways to capture. People who spotted the fugitives might alert police-or capture the runaways themselves for a reward. The fugitives were often hungry, cold, and scared for their lives.

To give themselves a better chance of escape, enslaved people had to be clever. For instance, fugitives sometimes fled on Sundays because reward posters could not be printed until Monday to alert the public; others would run away during the Christmas holiday when the white plantation owners wouldn't notice they were gone. The fugitives also often traveled by night-under the cover of darkness-following the North Star.

Once they were on their journey, they looked for safe resting places that they had heard might be along the Underground Railroad. A hiding place might be inside a person's attic or basement, a secret part of a barn, the crawl space under the floors in a church, or a hidden compartment in the back of a wagon. At these stations, they'd receive food and shelter; then the agent would tell them where to go next.

To avoid capture, fugitives sometimes used disguises and came up with clever ways to stay hidden. One bold escape happened in 1849 when Henry "Box" Brown was packed and shipped in a three-foot-long box with three air holes drilled in. After traveling along the Underground Railroad for 27 hours by wagon, train, and boat, Brown was delivered safely to agents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Agents of change

Runaway slaves couldn't trust just anyone along the Underground Railroad. Fortunately, people were willing to risk their lives to help them. Many were ordinary people, farmers, business owners, ministers, and even former enslaved people.

In 1826, Levi Coffin, a religious Quaker who opposed slavery, moved to Indiana. By chance he learned that he lived on a route along the Underground Railroad. Coffin and his wife, Catherine, decided to make their home a station. More than 3,000 slaves passed through their home heading north to Canada.

Frederick Douglass escaped slavery from Maryland in 1838 and became a well-known abolitionist, writer, speaker, and supporter of the Underground Railroad. He hid runaways in his home in Rochester, New York, and helped 400 fugitives travel to Canada.

Another Underground Railroad operator was William Still, a free Black business owner and abolitionist movement leader. By day he worked as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, but at night he secretly aided fugitives. He raised money and helped hundreds of enslaved people escape to the North, but he also knew it was important to tell their stories.

That's why Still interviewed the runaways who came through his station, keeping detailed records of the individuals and families, and hiding his journals until after the Civil War. Then in 1872, he self-published his notes in his book, The Underground Railroad. It's one of the clearest accounts of people involved with the Underground Railroad.

The most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman, who escaped from slavery in 1849. Determined to help others, Tubman returned to her former plantation to rescue family members. Later she started guiding other fugitives from Maryland. Tubman made 13 trips and helped 70 enslaved people travel to freedom. William Still even provided funding for several of Tubman's rescue trips.

Fugitive slave laws

Americans helped enslaved people escape even though the U.S. government had passed laws making this illegal. In 1793, Congress passed the first federal Fugitive Slave Law. This law gave local governments the right to capture and return escapees, even in states that had outlawed slavery. Plus, anyone caught helping runaway slaves faced arrest and jail.

But the law often wasn't enforced in many Northern states where slavery was not allowed, and people continued to assist fugitives. Politicians from Southern slaveholding states did not like that and pressured Congress to pass a new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 that was much harsher.

This law increased the power of Southerners to reclaim their fugitives, and a slave catcher only had to swear an oath that the accused was a runaway-even if the Black person was legally free. So slave catchers began kidnapping any Black person for a reward. No place in America was safe for Black people. Many enslaved and free Blacks fled to Canada to escape the U.S. government's laws.

But the 1850 law only inspired abolitionists to help fugitives more. Widespread opposition sparked riots and revolts. In 1851, a group of angry abolitionists stormed a Boston, Massachusetts, courthouse to break out a runaway from jail. Other rescues happened in New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

It wasn't until June 28, 1864-less than a year before the Civil War ended-that both Fugitive Slave Acts were finally repealed by Congress.

Future generations

The Underground Railroad successfully moved enslaved people to freedom despite the laws and people who tried to prevent it. Exact numbers don't exist, but it's estimated that between 25,000 and 50,000 enslaved people escaped to freedom through this network.

The Underground Railroad was a social movement that started when ordinary people joined together tomake a change in society. It's an example of how people, regardless of their race or economic status, united for a common cause.

As the late Congressman John Lewis said, "When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something." That's why people today continue to work together and speak out against injustices to ensure freedom and equality for all people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The historic movement carried thousands of enslaved people to freedom. This is their journey.

# data[].attributes.body
By Yona Zeldas McDonough

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/hidden-figures-nasa-computers-women-katherine-johnson-space-science

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As a girl growing up in rural West Virginia, Katherine Johnson loved to count. She counted everything: the steps between her house and the road, the number of dishes she'd washed-anything that could be quantified.

Johnson started high school by the time she was 10. By 18, she'd finished college, where she excelled as a math major and was sometimes the only student in the hardest courses offered.

She was, by all accounts, brilliant.

That brilliance, which is chronicled in a recent book and the upcoming movie Hidden Figures, would eventually help the United States win the space race, a geopolitical competition that peaked with the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.

But in the first half of the 20th century, Johnson was penned in by stereotypes about her race and her gender, as well as Jim Crow laws that mandated the segregation of African-Americans.

With limited options, Johnson initially took a job teaching math, French, and music at Virginia public schools, since that was, she said, the obvious thing to do with her talents.

"You could be a nurse or a teacher," she said in a video interview with MAKERS.

Then, in 1953, a small group of "human computers" at Langley Research Center in Virginia came calling. Mechanical computers were just beginning to emerge in research labs, so to perform complex calculations, most teams primarily relied on skilled people who were nimble-minded and facile with numbers. In aeronautics labs around the country, these jobs were often filled by women.

Johnson applied for a job as a computer at Langley and went to work under the direction of Dorothy Vaughan, the first African-American woman to supervise the center's cadre of human calculators. Also among them was Mary Jackson, who would go on to become the first female African-American engineer employed by NASA.

After just two weeks, Johnson was transferred to the Flight Research Division, where she and her colleagues were eventually tasked with helping NASA meet the challenge posed by the Soviets with the 1957 launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite, followed by the 1961 orbital flight of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. (Also see "25 Years on, Collapse of Soviet Union Still Brings Cheers-And Tears.")

In 1961, Johnson calculated and plotted the trajectory Alan Shepard 's space capsule would follow as it briefly left Earth. The next year, Johnson calculated and plotted the path astronaut John Glenn would take when he showed a restless, anxious country that it, too, could send a person into orbit and meet the Soviet challenge.

After circling the Earth three times, Glenn safely splashed down-but he reportedly was not willing to even begin his journey until Johnson had verified the calculations produced by a new breed of robotic computer (her computations matched the machine's, and the rest is history).

In 1969, Johnson helped send Apollo 11 to the moon, which is the mission she's most proud of.

"I computed the path that would get you there," she told MAKERS. "We told them how fast they would be going, and the moon would be there when you got there."

Johnson retired from NASA in 1986, and over decades of service she played a role in every space program the agency launched, including the space shuttle program. In 2015, President Obama awarded 97-year-old Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

"It was my job," she says simply. "And I did my job correctly-and well."

But the truth is, it wasn't so easy.

When Johnson started calculating celestial trajectories, the civil rights movement was still gaining momentum, and the group of female computers Vaughan led was sequestered in a room with a sign outside that read "Colored Computers."

Still, Langley not only recognized the expertise of these women and offered them jobs based solely on their abilities but trusted them with the astronauts' lives.

"Langley was an unusual place," says Bill Barry, NASA's chief historian. It was progressive, he says, and populated with scientists and engineers from all over the country who cared more about hard data than societal constructs.

"To some degree, they could 'get away with' flouting social conventions of Tidewater Virginia because of this," Barry says. "The conditions were ripe for this stereotype-shattering anomaly to happen."

Even now, Johnson, Vaughan, and Jackson stand out as role models for women like Christine Darden, who climbed atop their shoulders to become one of NASA's preeminent engineers and a leading expert in supersonic flight.

Today, women-and especially minority women-continue to battle prejudice in the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering and struggle to prove that their brains are every bit as good as a man's. It's a frustrating reality, but one that can be changed.

"We hope that this story will inspire many young people to pursue education and their dreams," Barry says. "After all, if there is one thing clear from our history, it is that you never know what kind of package your most brilliant employees might come in."

[ Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct the year of the Apollo 11 moon landing.]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Historic Pictures Show the Hidden Women of the Space Race

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As a girl growing up in rural West Virginia, Katherine Johnson loved to count. She counted everything: the steps between her house and the road, the number of dishes she'd washed-anything that could be quantified. Johnson started high school by the time she was 10.

# data[].attributes.headline
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race

# data[].attributes.subject
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race

# data[].attributes.body
By Margot Lee Shetterly

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.obamalibrary.gov/obamas/first-lady-michelle-obama

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Early Life and Career

Michelle Robinson Obama was born in DeYoung, Illinois, on January 17, 1964, to parents Frasier Robinson III and Marian Shields. She grew up in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood with her older brother Craig, attending Chicago Public Schools and quickly joining gifted classes in elementary school.

Mrs. Obama graduated in 1981 as class salutatorian from Whitney Young High School, Chicago's first magnet high school. She followed her brother to Princeton University in New Jersey, graduating cum laude in 1985. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Sociology with a minor in African-American Studies, which informed her senior thesis: "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community."

In 1988, Mrs. Obama received her law degree from Harvard Law School. Following graduation, she was hired by the Chicago corporate-law firm of Sidley & Austin, where she specialized in entertainment law, and was ultimately assigned as advisor to summer associate Barack Obama. After leaving Sidley & Austin in 1993, Mrs. Obama worked for the city of Chicago's Department of Planning and later the national service organization Public Allies.

Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson were married in 1992 at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. They have two daughters, Malia and Natasha "Sasha."

Mrs. Obama accepted the position of Associate Dean of Students at the University of Chicago in 1996, where she also served as director of the University Community Student Center. In 2002, she became the University of Chicago Hospital's Director of Community Affairs, and was promoted to Vice President of External Affairs and Community Relations in 2005.

At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Mrs. Obama was introduced by her brother, Craig Robinson, and delivered an address to the convention.

Presidential

During her husband's administration, Mrs. Obama launched multiple initiatives. Let's Move! targeted childhood obesity by encouraging kids to participate in physical activity and revamped US school lunches to include more nutritious food options. To illustrate healthy meal planning at home and encourage Americans to learn about where their food comes from, Mrs. Obama planted a vegetable garden on the grounds of the White House in 2009-the first since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during World War II. Harvest from the gardens were cooked in the White House kitchen and provided to Miriam's Kitchen, a local organization serving the homeless community in Washington, DC.

Detailing her efforts in establishing the White House kitchen garden, Mrs. Obama published her first book, American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, in 2012.

In 2011, Mrs. Obama collaborated with Mrs. Jill Biden to launch Joining Forces, an initiative rallying American civilians and their organizations to support US service members and veterans and their families. The initiative used a three-prong approach-employment, education, and wellness-for organizing national efforts to provide additional tools to the US military community.

The Reach Higher initiative encouraged all American students to aspire to education beyond high school, through training programs, community college, or university. Expanding her educational goals to the international level, the Let Girls Learn program drew together resources from the US Department of State, US Agency for International Development, Peace Corps, Millennium Challenge Corporation, and US President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to empower young girls across the world to secure a quality education.

Works Published by Michelle Obama

American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, 2012 (ISBN: 978-0307956026)

Becoming, 2018 (ISBN: 978-1524763138)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Michelle Robinson Obama was born in DeYoung, Illinois, on January 17, 1964, to parents Frasier Robinson III and Marian Shields. She grew up in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood with her older brother Craig, attending Chicago Public Schools and quickly joining gifted classes in elementary school. Mrs.

# data[].attributes.body
By Christine Platt