dr. gladys west. welcome, dr. jackson. for those of you unfamiliar with dr. west, tell us about her. she's another hidden figure, isn't she? >> she really is. allf a sudden, she has come out and everybody knows aut her, but gladys west is a remarkable woman. back in 56 she took a job with theavy at a laboratory and base. she didn't know where she was going. she didn't know anything about the navy. she thought she was going to be aer all her life. all of a sudden, she takes this yhe job andecomes one of the people who did the math to come up with the gps program and not just gps. she did's lot of math for t navy. she is one of the hidden figures that people don't even realize. when she went there, there were only two other blacks employed there at that base. she just came in there and she just went ahead. she had a lot of confidence and a lot of strength. i think that's something that women of color have h always. her mother had it, but her mother didn't have the formal education. >> and you mentioned just a few african-americans there. one of them was her husband. >> ira. >> he became

dr. gladys gary vaughn, development commitment chair, luncheon committee co-chair. la fleming hunter who is also a past asalah president. dr. nashani frazier. dr. jarvis givens. dr. cheryl renay goo. miss i see shah hikele. miss anton house. mr. jeff banks, co-chair. dr. duncan. miss susan sims marsh. mr. moses massenburg. dr. edna green medford. dr. annette palmer. miss anita shepherd. would all past council members attending today's luncheon please also stand and be recognized. [ applause ] we appreciate your service. thank you. now dr. gladys gary vaughn. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> as you've just heard, i'm gladys gary vaughn and this is my partner in crime, sharita jacobs thompson and together we co-chair this very special annual event for asalah. it is our privilege to do so. i'm here to recognize our city officials and organizational partners who are here with us today. now, lionel asked you to hold applause. i'm going to ask you to do the same thing. you responded to him very nicely. i hope you will respond to me. councilmember monique anderson. woul

dr. gladys gary vaughn and dr. sharita thompson. i also want to get dr.ham chair of the history department at harvard university. i would like to welcome he is pastor of the african methodist episcopal church right here in washington dc for our invocation. ied beneath the harml rubble of >> beloved i wish to invite us into something that our nation desperately needs, a moment of silence. you have always known us and we have always known you , you called us by name before there were churches or mosques, we saw you dancing in all that you created, we heard your voice echoing throughout the cosmos, we spoke to her word before there were bibles or carranza, in this moment however your voice seems to be buried beneath the harmful rubble of the black mimicry of white evangelicalism. your voice seems to be barely audible as prosperity preachers serve harmful helpings of conspicuous consumption and uncritical capitalist assimilation and call it the gospel. your voice seems a whisper as our religious leaders embrace and support with their silence a system that cru

gladys. good afternoon. my name is dr. thompson.ave the pleasure of serving as her cochair, as she said earlier. my honor to recognize special guests and sponsors attending the luncheon this year. again, please hold your applause until all have been introduced. as i call your name or organization, please stand. first, i would like to acknowledge a few of our special guests. who wasothy gilliam, featured at our inaugural authors event this morning. miceli hollandsworth baker, of thetional president sorority incorporated. scott, the interim president of the black caucus foundation. president of the national council of negro league and. ms. bentley, representing bentley lamarr of the sorority north atlantic regional director. members of the board of directors of the delta research and education foundation. presidents of 14 chapters in the metropolitan area. malveaux.na former chiefochon, usher at the white house. dr. frank smith, founding director of the african american civil war museum. lonnie bunch, founding director of the national

dr. gladys west what went through her mind when she first saw the film "hidden figures" and she will telld of like watching her own story. >> i said we're doing the same kind of things, exactly parallel to it, except they were at different institutions. i mean, they are doing almost exactly. they had the same computers and everything, yeah. that was -- that was cool. >> back in 1956, dr. west began working as a mathematician at the u.s. naval weapons laboratory dahlgren in kings county virginia. the second black woman hired among a few other african-americans including her husband and in her mostly white workplace she made it her mission to stand out. >> i was always conscious of i've got to do more, you know. i can't just be like everybody. i've got to do more, and so i put a strain on myself. >> she was part of a team that helped develop a global positioning system or in that era before high-tech computers, she was the computer, measuring and mapping the earth, calculating distances and more. in the past year, that work earned dr. west new found integration from air forceo honors intern