Today's Black Love History Lesson  | Inventions & Love

.

We celebrate the love of Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson and Morris A. Washington for having the kind of love that allowed them to excel in life and love together.

.

Have you ever used a touchtone phone, call waiting, a portable fax or caller ID? Well, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson paved the way for those things!

.

Born in Washington, D.C., Shirley went from being valedictorian of her high-school graduating class to becoming the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in nuclear physics at MIT.

.

Later, Jackson joined the Theoretical Physics Research Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories. While at Bell laboratories, Jackson met her future husband, physicist Morris A. Washington.

.

“Shirley, you have given me credit for providing the wind beneath your wings,” said Dr. Jackson’s husband, Dr. Washington at a recent award ceremony. “I very much appreciate that thought. Now, all of us like to think very highly of our abilities, but I honestly do not believe that I can generate that much wind to allow you to soar to such great heights and achieve as much as you have.”

.

And soar she did! Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson has been inducted in the National Women's Hall of Fame, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, professor of physics at Rutgers, served as a member of the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, served on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology during

Barack Obama

's term, and has amassed numerous awards. Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is a member of

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc

.

Morris A. Washington, is a physics professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where Dr. Jackson has been president.

.

Throughout their life together, they have honored their roles as scientists, philanthropists, and advocates. Both genius in their own right, but neither dimming the light of the other.

.

We salute the kind of the love that allows the other to soar!