US-RSE Celebrates Black History Month 2025

Published: Jan 31, 2025 by Lance Parsons, Cordero Core

US-RSE’s DEI working group (DEI-WG) is proud to lead the US-RSE’s participation in celebrating Black History Month.

First up, we’ll be sharing stories throughout the month that recognize and celebrate African Americans who have inspired our members through their accomplishments in their careers and their personal stories. We’ll be publishing these posts throughout February to highlight such people, where we talk about the person and tie their work and life to the RSE movement.

• A. Phillip Randolph - Discover the inspiring journey of Dr. Randolph, a pioneer in research software engineering.
• Charles Henry Turner - Discover the pioneering work of Charles Turner, a trailblazing zoologist who advanced our understanding of animal behavior.
• Gladys West - Through painstaking mathematical modeling and early computer programming, she helped define the precise shape of the Earth — a crucial advancement in the development of satellite geodesy.
• Charles R. Drew - read about his pioneering work in blood banking, transfusion medicine, and medical informatics.

In addition, we’re excited to host a Zoom discussion on Thursday, February 20th at noon PT / 3 PM ET. @Cordero Core shared one of his favorite YouTube channels with us from Garrison Hayes. We invite you to watch the three episodes linked below from Garrison Hayes’ YouTube channel, and then come prepared for a lively, engaging, and thought provoking conversation with us over Zoom on Thursday, February 20th and continuing in the #dei-discussion channel on Slack (details and link in the channel). For those that aren’t familiar, Garrison explores a variety of interesting questions, usually at the intersection of Black history, politics and current events.

• Why the right is so obsessed with DEI
• Tim Scott and the “token black guy”
• Why are Black people still Christian?

Finally, we wanted to share with you some articles, shows, and resources we found engaging and we invite you to share your own, either on Slack or with the hashtag #usrse-blackhistory.

Events/Conferences

• US-RSE Zoom Discussion - Thursday, February 20 - Garrison Hayes episodes on DEI, the “token black guy”, and Black Christians - Register on Slack in the #dei-discussion channel
• Black Tech Week - July 14-16 at the Aronoff Center in Cincinnati, OH
• BITCON 2025 - BITCON is the annual conference for the largest community of Black technology professionals globally
• Black Women in Data Summit 2025 - centers Black women’s point of view in all spaces where data lives
• AfroTech Conference 2025 - Explore enterprise innovation, shape the future of work, build essential skills, and champion tech for good

Organizations

• BlackGirlsHack - Home of Black Girl Cyber Magic
• Black In Astro - Celebrating and amplifying the Black experience in space-related fields
• Black Men in Tech - access, resources, and community for Black men within the tech industry
• Code.org’s Approach to Diversity and Equity in Computer Science
• blackcomputeHER.org - dedicated to supporting computing+tech education and workforce development for Black women and girls
• African American Women in Physics - honor the women who paved the way, to inspire future physicists, and to connect with allies interested in promoting diversity in Physics and other STEM fields
• National Society of Black Physicists - For nearly 50 years, NSBP has existed to open more opportunities in physics and related sciences for African Americans and others across the African diaspora

Articles/Podcasts/Shows

• She Started It - an award-winning documentary that provides a rare look in the lives of five ambitious young women entrepreneurs (Thuy, Stacey, Sheena, Brienne and Agathe) who will stop at nothing to pursue their startup dreams.
• Coded Bias - When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, she embarks on a journey to push for the first-ever U.S. legislation against bias in algorithms that impact us all.
• Interview with Marc Hannah - co-founded Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) in 1982, which created software and hardware for 3D visuals in films like Jurassic Park and Terminator 2.
• Star Trek Episodes
  • Let That Be Your Last Battlefield ST:TOS
  • Far Beyond the Stars ST:DS9
  • Living Witness ST:VOY (great episode about historical revisionism)
• View on Demand: “Black Excellence in Real-World Computing” from ACM
• Fostering an Enjoyable Black History Learning Experience in Your CS Classroom - Computer Science Teachers Association from Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA)