I recently read a children’s book about Wu Chien-Shiung who Newsweek once called the Queen of Physics. She is also known as the First Lady of Physics. A Chinese-American physicist born in China who received her PhD in the U.S., and later became a U.S. citizen in 1954, she is credited with disproving the belief that nature does not distinguish between right and left – a concept known as parity. For disproving the law of parity, two of her male colleagues received the  Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 while Wu was excluded. She was nominated at least 7 times for the Nobel Prize in Physics prior to 1966 but never received it during her lifetime. Aware of gender-based discrimination rampant at the time for women in the field of science, she famously stated in October 1964 at an MIT Symposium:

“I wonder whether the tiny atoms and nuclei, or the mathematical symbols, or the DNA molecules have any preference for either masculine or feminine treatment.”

As a dual national of the U.S. and China, she fought for social justice and gender equality, paving a path for American and Asian women in physics and science. In honor of Asia Pacific Islander and Heritage Month, I let Wu’s words carry on her legacy.

公平と平等 (Fairness and Equality)

American history is diverse, and there is still much that is not widely taught. A little-known site in Lorton, Virginia, is the former Workhouse Prison, now home to the Lucy Burns Museum. From 1917 to 1918, Lucy Burns and other suffragists were imprisoned there for picketing the White House in support of a constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote.

Today, the former prison cells remain visible, now filled with powerful works of art. The transformation of confinement into creativity is striking. Thanks to the courage of these women, generations of Americans can exercise the right to vote.

Among the artwork on display is a powerful painting honoring Ida B. Wells and confronting the evils of racism, a reminder that the struggle for justice has taken many forms across American history.

Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Duke Ellington also performed on site, adding another layer of cultural history to this remarkable place. There is much to explore at the Lucy Burns Museum. It is well worth a visit.

Places like the Lucy Burns Museum remind us that constitutional change often begins with ordinary citizens willing to endure extraordinary sacrifice. Civic progress rarely comes without courage. The right to vote, now taken for granted by many, was secured because individuals stood firm in the face of opposition. History is not only something to study. It is something to learn from.