Black History Month, which runs throughout February, is a time to reflect, remember and honor the contributions of Black Americans to our country.

And for three Oncor employees, the month-long celebration leads them to recall the famous -- and not so famous -- Black Americans who inspire them.

Mark Dawson, an M&C supervisor at DFW Airport, said his mother has always been the person he’s looked up to.

Sequeena Thomas, Distribution Services Advisor, looks to her young daughters, Samiyah and Serena, for daily inspiration.

And April Pinkston, Senior Manager, Transformation Program Office, remembers Katherine Johnson, the mathematician whose groundbreaking work led to the success of early U.S. space travel.

“She was known as the human calculator at NASA,” Pinkston said. “Until the movie, ‘Hidden Figures,’ she’s not one we hear a lot about, but she kind of paved the path for some of us, like myself, who are engineers.”

“I still look up to my mom,” Dawson said. “She taught me how to be the man I am today. She’s still alive and I thank God for that. And I go to her house and eat dinner still on Sundays.”

Thomas said her daughters inspire her to be a better person. “I have people who look to me and are looking at the world with bright new eyes and fresh new minds and ideas and thoughts,” she said.

“And it’s my job to shape them and mold them and to cultivate a life for them that is better than the life that I’ve had. So they inspire me to be the best me.”