Jennie Patrick
| Jennie Patrick | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 1, 1949 Gadsden, Alabama, U.S. |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemical engineering |
| Institutions | Tuskegee University |
Jennie Patrick (born 1949) is an American chemical engineer and educator. As a high school student, she participated in the integration of Alabama's public schools. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979, she became the first African American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in traditional chemical engineering. In industry, she did pioneering work on supercritical fluid extraction. Her educational work has focused on the mentoring of African American and female students.
Jennie Patrick was born on January 1, 1949 to James and Elizabeth Patrick of Gadsden, Alabama. Her father was a laborer, and her mother worked as a housekeeper. Neither had more than a sixth-grade education, but they believed that education was the way out of poverty. They bought two sets of encyclopedias for their children, which Patrick read, along with books from the local public library.
Patrick's elementary and middle schools were segregated, but supportive. She was curious about how things worked and was very imaginative. In 1964, Patrick was one of a group of African American students who integrated Gadsden High School after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Gadsden had the scientific equipment Patrick needed for scientific studies, unavailable in the local black schools. She experienced discrimination from both students and teachers, and had to challenge the staff to be considered for college preparatory classes. She said of her experiences, "The initial months were a living nightmare. The emotional, psychological, mental, and physical violence against us was difficult to comprehend." Of the eleven black students with whom she entered Gadsden, half left the school before graduation. Patrick graduated with honors in 1967. She was not allowed to join the National Honor Society because she was African American.
Though offered a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley, Patrick initially studied closer to home, at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. There she majored in a short-lived program in chemical engineering. When that program collapsed, she transferred to Berkeley, but was no longer eligible for a scholarship. She worked to pay her way through Berkeley, and graduated in 1973 with a B.Sc. in chemical engineering. During her time at Berkeley, other students and faculty felt and expressed that she did not belong at Berkeley, and even destroyed her work. Patrick credits her experiences at Berkeley with helping her to develop mental toughness and independence.
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