Nineteen Fifty-Six Vol. 1 No. 2 Voice

When you think of Birmingham,
Alabama there are a few things that
initially come to mind: the civil
rights movement, football, music
or maybe even crime. Regardless of
what springs to mind first, the last
thing people typically think of is
technology. Niesha White is shifting
that culture with Birmingham Black
Techies.
Niesha White is currently a frontend
web developer at Altech LLC
in Birmingham, Alabama. In late
2019, White began Birmingham
Black Techies as a Facebook group
to connect with more African
Americans involved with technology
in and around the Birmingham area.
“I’m like I know there are Black
people in tech here. There are a lot
of Black people in Birmingham, so I
know there are Black people in tech
here, but I don’t know any of them
except for the people from my job,”
White said. As a native of Dothan,
Alabama, White said she believed
it was more difficult for her to find
African Americans in the field of
technology because she didn’t know
where to look in Birmingham.
“I think if I had been from
Birmingham, it wouldn’t have been
so tough, I would’ve known where to
look,” White said.
The 28-year-old got her start in
technology a bit unexpectedly.
After two universities and three
majors, White discovered her love
for technology. “First of all, I started
at UAB [University of Alabama at
Birmingham] and I was a broadcast
journalism major. Then I moved
to Troy, because it was closer to
home and it was just a lot cheaper,”
White said. At Troy University,
White changed her major to music,
then graphic design and ultimately
computer science. “At that point I
switched to a music major, because
I’ve always loved music and I
wanted to get into management and
songwriting and publishing... Also,
technology because I was interested
in the production too,” White said.
Once White switched her major
to graphic design, her passion in
technology began to “click”. White
realized music, graphic design,
and art in general have a common
denominator, technology. By this
time, she discovered her love for
computers, web design and web
development. In addition, White
had more responsibilities which
led to her working as a bank teller
while earning her computer
science degree online.
White traces her background with
HyperText Markup Language,
better known as HTML, and web
design to her middle school and
high school days. Like most teens
during this time period, White
played around with Myspace and
Tumblr. “At that time, I didn’t
really consider it coding, it was
just fun making a website look
different and look cool,” White
said.
White has many plans for
Birmingham Black Techies. She
intends for Birmingham Black
Techies to provide mentorship
to young African Americans
in Birmingham that share the
same interest she had at a young
age. She wants this to become
the platform that local African
Americans in technology use to
support each other while climbing
the ladder of professional success.
White believes Birmingham is
“on the come up” in regards to
technology and she doesn’t want
African Americans to be caught
off guard or left behind. “I feel
like people don’t realize how
up and coming our tech scene
is. Which is why I think
Birmingham Black Techies is
really important right now,
because we want to be a
part of what’s happening,”
White said.
This past February, Apple
CEO Tim Cook paid
Birmingham a visit. Cook
announced that Apple
will be partnering with
JOSEPH KING
BIRMINGHAM
BLACK
TECHIES
22