Kennerly: Her voice made a difference
She was a young black woman, just out of school, at a time when being black or a woman might still get you the door instead of a job offer.
It was 1967. Apollo 4 was about to be rolled out. Myrtle Kent Wilcox was a teenager from Mims, the fifth of 13 children. Mims, where, when Wilcox was a toddler, civil rights activists Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore were killed by a bomb placed beneath their home.
But for Wilcox, growing up there also meant a road that led to Kennedy Space Center. And a desire for equality that reminds me, especially during Black History Month, that Brevard is full of history-makers who fought against discrimination in big and small ways.
In April 1967, shortly after her graduation from all-black Gibson High School in Titusville, Wilcox started a 31-year career with NASA by becoming part of a summer YOC — Youth Opportunity Campaign.
It was a groundbreaking time at NASA. A press release for the 2015 book "We Could Not Fail," about how NASA helped integrate the South, explains: "Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson utilized the space program as an agent for social change, using federal equal employment opportunity laws to open workplaces at NASA and NASA contractors to African Americans while creating thousands of research and technology jobs in the Deep South to ameliorate poverty."
An August 1967 edition of "Spaceport News" features a picture of Wilcox and a peer "checking typing schedules" and states that the 19 "disadvantaged or low-skilled" students who were part of YOC were being trained "for useful service in the community and to the Kennedy Space Center."
For Wilcox, it would not only lead to a good-paying, permanent job but embolden her to stand up for her beliefs and for equality.
"While I was a YOC student, I won a trip to Washington, D.C., for my outstanding work performance," the Titusville resident said. "After graduating from the program and being hired, upon completing my training, I held various positions throughout my career, including in procurement."
By 1974, as her skills and self-confidence grew, Wilcox played a role as the civil rights movement made a splash-down at Kennedy Space Center Federal Credit Union (now Launch Federal Credit Union).
"One day, as I was standing in line at the credit union, waiting my turn to go up to the teller, I observed there were no African-American employees," she said. "All the employees were white. We African Americans were members and supporters of the credit union."
So she took her concerns to the EEO office and director, J. Albert Diggs, and to BEST, the Black Employees Strategy Team at KSC. In turn, Wilcox and other BEST members Sandra Rayner and Daniel Evans spoke to the then-president of the credit union.
"We were told by the president that our concerns would be taken into consideration," she said.
Yet, on a later visit to the credit union, she noticed Hispanics and members of other ethnic groups — "but not African Americans," she said. "So I went back to the EEO office and reported what I saw."
BEST members met again with the credit union president. Letters were written. All this as Wilcox, a divorced mom of two, continued to raise her daughters and work.
"I was hoping that the president would not think this would shut us up, simply because they hired Hispanics and others," she said.
She didn't shut up or let up — and can look back with pride.
"I wanted to open the door for blacks and we succeeded," Wilcox said. "Today, blacks are employed at all locations of Launch ... some of them hold very important management positions. And other ethnic groups benefited from it, too."
She often thinks of lyrics to the black anthem: "Lift every voice and sing /Till earth and heaven ring/Ring with the harmonies of liberty ... let us march on till victory is won."
The young black woman from Mims lifted her own voice — and still does.
"I believe God had me at at NASA and Kennedy Space Center at that time to use my voice, and the voices of others uniting with me," Wilcox said. "He has a plan, a purpose for us all ... let's stand together and make a difference."
Contact Kennerly at 321-242-3692 or firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow her on Twitter @bybrittkennerly or at Facebook.com/bybrittkennerly.