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Alene Brown Harris

Chevron’s First African American Scientist

Out of the bowels of poverty, racial bigotry and emotional abuse, author Alene Brown Harris shares an intimate life portrait in her autobiography entitled, Alene: Chevron’s First African American Scientist. Mrs. Harris has opened the archives of an emotional journey that ultimately led her to stand amongst our boldest and bravest African American trailblazers. Her story begins in 1948 in the small country town of Jayess, Mississippi, one of the most economically poor and racist states in the U.S. Also a place one might not expect to birth a Phenom.

Alene’s life experiences could have easily broken her will to live. Instead, it fed her gumption to rise up and work hard to capture an unbelievably victorious life. She leads her readers toward the belief that miracles are possible, and success is imminent with hard work, determination, a belief in the divine and a strong desire to pay it forward.Picking cotton as a young child in unbearable heat, going to bed hungry many a night, delivering moonshine by foot from one county to another with her siblings to help her family make ends meet. These were but a
few challenges fueling her youthful dreams to one day rise above limitations and move to California to pursue a purpose-filled life.With unwavering parental support, Alene jumped a great hurdle and graduated from Mississippi’s great HBCU, Alcorn State College. With a diploma in hand, she secured a teaching/administrative position and was on her way to developing a career in the field of education, until a surprising series of events lured her in a most improbable direction. A scientist working in a laboratory with life-threatening chemicals for one of the most prestigious oil companies in the world, Chevron Texaco.Extreme racism and sexism greeted her entrance into a male-dominated fraternity of scientists and egos, causing her to wonder if she had indeed made the greatest mistake of her life. Instead, she discovered that a call to a higher purpose was placed before her to accept or dismiss. By accepting she paved the way for women and men from all ethnic groups to cross the unjust divide Chevron Texaco was compelled to remove. Follow Alene as she tells her true story of making history during the 60’s and 70’s civil rights era, conquered the odds and became Chevron Texaco’s first African American female scientist.