Rising Queens Inc

🌟 Gladys West – The Hidden Genius Behind GPS

📚 Who She Is
Dr. Gladys West is a brilliant mathematician whose calculations helped create the foundation for GPS technology — yes, the same GPS we use every day to get directions, track rides, deliver food, and navigate life.

Yet for decades, her name was almost invisible in history books.

🧠 Her Story
Born in 1930 in rural Virginia to sharecroppers
Worked in the fields growing up while excelling in school
Earned a full scholarship to Virginia State College (an HBCU)
Later earned a master’s degree in mathematics

At a time when Black women rarely had access to STEM careers, she became a mathematician for the U.S. Navy at Dahlgren.

🚀 The Big Impact (What most people don’t know)

In the 1970s–80s, West:
Programmed computers the size of rooms

Analyzed satellite data
Created precise mathematical models of the Earth’s shape (geodesy)

Her work helped determine:

✔️ exact Earth measurements
✔️ satellite positioning accuracy
✔️ the math that makes GPS possible today

Without her formulas…
👉 your phone maps wouldn’t work
👉 ambulances couldn’t track locations
👉 planes and ships couldn’t navigate precisely

She literally helped the world find its way.

🏆 Recognition (finally!)

For years, she worked quietly behind the scenes.

It wasn’t until 2018 that she was:
Inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame

Publicly recognized as a GPS pioneer

✊🏾 Hidden Black History Spotlight

The Free Breakfast Revolution

Led by the Black Panther Party

Most people only hear one version of the Panthers.

They’re often shown as “angry,” “militant,” or “dangerous.”

But here’s what rarely gets talked about:

👉🏾 They fed thousands of kids every single morning.

Before the government ever stepped in…

Before schools offered breakfast…

Before “food insecurity” became a term…

The Black Panther Party created the first nationwide FREE breakfast program for children.

🥞 The History They Don’t Teach

In 1969:
Panthers woke up at 5:00 a.m.

Cooked hot meals
Partnered with churches & community centers

Fed kids before school

Asked for nothing in return

They served:
Eggs
Grits
Pancakes
Bacon
Fruit
Milk

Not snacks.

Full meals.

Because they believed:
“You can’t learn on an empty stomach.”

Within a year: 👉🏾 20,000+ kids per day were being fed nationwide

The program worked so well that the U.S. government later created public school breakfast programs modeled after it.

So the breakfasts kids get today?

That started with the Panthers.

Not The Government......

From Selma to today, the fight for justice never stopped.

Our ancestors marched so we could vote, learn, lead, and live free.

Now it’s our turn.
It takes a village.
It takes unity.
It takes courage.

We stand together for human rights, equity, and opportunity for every family.

Because when one of us rises… we ALL rise. ✊🏾

And sometimes that means going to the polls and even voting out your own party of choice if they are not meeting the needs of your community.

It starts local, then County, then state because it's the local and the county who affects what happens in your community and if they're not doing the work that benefits the black community then it's time for them to go.

Your school Board! If our babies ain't getting the right education and we're repeating a cycle of failure then it's time for them to go and should not be allowed to be voted back in!

This includes your judges your DA's and your prosecutors. If they're not solving crimes and if they're not being judicially fair to blacks it's time for them to go.

In order for us to live comfortable in life we must get uncomfortable and that's talking about things that might offend others.

We're not out to hurt anyone but we're out to protect our human rights as we should.

Take a, take a look around it's no secret blacks in our community and around the world are still on the bottom of the totem pole for Justice!

Presented by Rising Queens Inc.