THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Jane “Janey” Briggs Hart
October 21, 1921 – June 5, 2015
“I don’t think it is unwomanly to be intelligent, to be courageous, to be energetic, to be anxious to contribute to human knowledge.”
Pioneering aviator and peace activist. Active in civic affairs and women’s rights. Served as vice chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Committee. Board member and national convention delegate for the Birmingham League of Women Voters. Member of NOW’s first national board, 1966. Chosen to be part of The Lovelace Foundation’s Woman in Space Program, a privately funded project testing women pilots for astronaut fitness. One of 13 women, The Mercury 13, to pass the rigorous physical tests developed by NASA to select their astronauts. Despite the test results, the women were not selected for space flights.
Photo. Jane Briggs Hart and husband, Senator Philip A. Hart, Democrat of Michigan, in 1970. (Photo: Rich Sheinwald, Associated Press for The New York Times)
More About Janey:
- Obituary, The New York Times
- NOW: Honoring Our Founders and Pioneers
- Michigan Women Forward Hall of Fame
- Legion of Angry Women, by Jack Anderson, November 1967
- Jane Briggs Hart papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
- Lovelace’s Woman in Space Program, NASA
- Mercury 13 tells the true story of the women who fought for their place in the stars.
- Wikipedia