1 00:00:00,118 --> 00:00:02,701 (gentle music) 2 00:00:06,870 --> 00:00:09,718 - I was born right here in Little Rock. 3 00:00:09,718 --> 00:00:12,635 We lived at 1216 West Ninth Street. 4 00:00:14,049 --> 00:00:17,292 And my mother would put me on the bus, so I could 5 00:00:17,292 --> 00:00:18,375 go to school. 6 00:00:18,995 --> 00:00:21,054 Public schools wouldn't take me. 7 00:00:21,054 --> 00:00:25,106 So I went, I attended Saint Bartholomew Catholic School. 8 00:00:25,106 --> 00:00:27,563 And the only thing that I knew was that I couldn't 9 00:00:27,563 --> 00:00:30,576 go to school with my little white friends. 10 00:00:30,576 --> 00:00:32,992 And I didn't realize that there was a difference in 11 00:00:32,992 --> 00:00:34,909 the color at that time. 12 00:00:36,796 --> 00:00:40,963 Then, one day, the United States captured a German 13 00:00:44,059 --> 00:00:47,651 submarine off of the coast of the Carolinas, 14 00:00:47,651 --> 00:00:51,318 and they brought it to downtown Little Rock. 15 00:00:51,367 --> 00:00:53,936 And my grandfather, for some reason, took me 16 00:00:53,936 --> 00:00:55,769 to see this submarine. 17 00:00:55,863 --> 00:01:00,030 And they let me go up the little ladder, and down the hatch, 18 00:01:00,299 --> 00:01:04,061 and I saw the dials and mechanisms, and I looked 19 00:01:04,061 --> 00:01:07,795 through the periscope, and I said to the guy who was 20 00:01:07,795 --> 00:01:11,799 giving the spiel, what do you have to know to do this? 21 00:01:11,799 --> 00:01:14,933 He said, you'd have to be an engineer. 22 00:01:14,933 --> 00:01:18,600 But you don't ever have to worry about that. 23 00:01:19,434 --> 00:01:22,399 I didn't realize I had been insulted. 24 00:01:22,399 --> 00:01:24,301 That the reason that he was saying I didn't have to 25 00:01:24,301 --> 00:01:28,468 worry about that was because I was minority and female. 26 00:01:29,716 --> 00:01:32,973 And my mother told me, Raye, you'll have 27 00:01:32,973 --> 00:01:35,043 three strikes against you. 28 00:01:35,043 --> 00:01:38,293 First, you're female, and you're black. 29 00:01:38,325 --> 00:01:40,992 At that time the term was negro. 30 00:01:41,731 --> 00:01:45,898 And you'll have a southern segregated school education. 31 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:49,910 But you can do or be anything you want to be, 32 00:01:50,623 --> 00:01:52,706 provided you're educated. 33 00:01:53,463 --> 00:01:55,213 You must be educated. 34 00:01:57,389 --> 00:02:00,336 So I asked my mother to take me to find out what was 35 00:02:00,336 --> 00:02:02,085 required to become an engineer. 36 00:02:02,085 --> 00:02:03,022 And she did. 37 00:02:03,022 --> 00:02:07,035 The math, the science, and thinking outside of the box. 38 00:02:07,035 --> 00:02:11,202 When I graduated high school, I was not allowed to attend 39 00:02:12,008 --> 00:02:14,954 the only school in Arkansas that offered a 40 00:02:14,954 --> 00:02:16,761 degree in engineering. 41 00:02:16,761 --> 00:02:20,928 So, I attended Arkansas AM&N Colors, and I received 42 00:02:21,857 --> 00:02:24,690 a Bachelor of Science in Business. 43 00:02:25,168 --> 00:02:28,698 And the day after I graduated college, I marched off to 44 00:02:28,698 --> 00:02:32,865 Washington, DC, fanned my resume around, and ironically 45 00:02:33,983 --> 00:02:36,805 enough, the first group of people to call me in for 46 00:02:36,805 --> 00:02:39,389 an interview was the Department of the Navy. 47 00:02:39,389 --> 00:02:41,972 (gentle music)