thing and I think I want to go to school there when I get to about college age,” she said. “I was just really energized by this television show and then I went to see my older brother who was also my good friend and I said, ‘Hey, I saw this documentary on TV and I think I want to go to the service academy when I get older.’ My older brother said, ‘No, you can’t.’” “What do you mean I can’t?” I asked. “Girls aren’t allowed, it’s against the law,” he said. “I thought it was strange that there would be a law that wouldn’t allow women to do what men could do,” said Admiral Howard. “I went to my mother and she said, ‘Yes, honey its true. It’s the law.’ ‘I don’t


understand,’ I told my mother. ‘Well, here’s what I think,’ my mother said, ‘You’re twelve so you’re young and you may change your mind, but I’ll tell you what, as you get older, if you don’t change your mind, I think you should try. I think you should try and if the military school doesn’t accept you because you’re a girl, we’ll sue the government,” my mother said. I was really taken back by this—that we’d have to sue the


government so that I’d be able to go,”


Admiral Howard told the girls.


“First of all, if you think


something’s right, you need to do it,” said Admiral Howard’s mother.


... telling them work ...


“But you need to understand that if we actually have to go down this path, it could take a long time and you might, by the time a Supreme Court agrees that what you’re saying is right and the world changes, you might be too old, but somebody else, another girl will have a chance to go.”


Admiral Michelle


Howard was the first African- American woman to command a U.S. ship!


Please turn to page 14 E Chess Life Kids April 2016 13


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