Short answers, pulled from the story.
Membership in the National Academy of Sciences is an honor awarded to scientists judged to have made distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Among the academy's active and international members, approximately 190 have also received Nobel Prizes.
Florence R. Sabin was the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences, in 1924. Women represented 40 percent of new inductees in 2019, though their share of the full membership remains much lower.
David Blackwell, who lived from 1919 to 2010, was the first African American elected to the National Academy of Sciences, in 1965.
New National Academy of Sciences members are nominated exclusively by current voting members; no scientist can apply independently. Candidates pass through peer review and multiple rounds of balloting in March, with a final vote in April at the annual general meeting and results announced in early May. Up to 120 new voting members and 30 international members may be elected per year.
Richard Feynman resigned from the National Academy of Sciences because he objected to what he perceived as the academy's elitism and in-group favoritism. He recorded his reasons in his published correspondence, Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track.
The National Academy of Sciences has three membership types: voting members, who must hold United States citizenship; nonvoting international members from other countries; and emeritus members, who have retired and given up their voting rights.