Katherine Johnson (Hidden Figure Woman Computer) Journey Narrative Women in STEAM
Katherine Johnson
“Like what you do, then you will do your best"
Gracefully spoken in the words of the late mathematician, Creola Katherine Johnson, formally known as Katherine Johnson. You may be familiar with this name from the 2017, award winning motion picture, “Hidden Figures” based on the Margot Lee Shetterly 2016 book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race”. Where Katherine Johnson and two other trailblazing African-American women of the time (Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson), were depicted in the film as defying odds in a male-dominated and White field while being some of the “firsts” to do so.
Katherine Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to Joylette and Joshua Coleman. Her mother was a teacher, and her father was a farmer and a janitor. Due to her parents' tenacity in instilling the importance of education during a time when educational opportunities for African Americans were scarce, and her unique skill set in mathematics, Katherine went on to attend high school at the young age of ten. The high school was located on the campus of the college she later attended in 1918 at 18 years old, West Virginia State College (currently West Virginia State University). While in college, she was a part of one of the illustrious Divine Nine sororities and fraternities, Alpha Kappa Alpha. In her own words, she’d expressed how she couldn’t wait to go to college to join the sorority and how she enjoyed being a part of uplifting our community.
With the help of her mentor, Professor William Schieffelin Claytor, she pursued a major in mathematics. He encouraged her to follow this path because he believed that she would make a great research mathematician. He could not have been more accurate! After graduating with honors from West Virginia State College in 1937, she began to teach in public schools in West Virginia.
A couple of years following her graduation, Katherine had been invited to be one of three African-American students to integrate West Virginia University’s graduate program by West Virginia State’s President John Davis. Can you guess what she studied? Math, of course! Interestingly, this took place just a couple of decades before “Little Rock Nine”, which was one of the most famous displays of African-American students integrating an all White school at the time.
Katherine, not long after starting graduate school, left to start her family with then husband James Goble, with whom she met during her time teaching. They married in 1939 and had three daughters together. Once her girls were older, Katherine was informed of positions at an all Black west computing area at NACA, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, now known today as NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Though in a time of peak segregation, the African-American women in the west computing area were known as the “ West Computers”. They were a vital contribution to the work done at Langley because they performed the mathematical calculations needed by the engineers. These calculations, done by the women, contributed to the success of the space program. So, Katherine and James moved their family to Newport News, Virginia so Katherine could take part in this new opportunity. Katherine began working officially, the summer of 1953 and just a couple weeks into her time there she had already been assigned to the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division. A few years later, her husband sadly passed away due to cancer. Several years after this, Katherine went on to marry Captain James A. Johnson. They were married until his passing in 2019. In 2020, Katherine Johnson passed away at the age of 101 years old.
During Katherine’s time at NASA she authored and co-authored 26 research reports during her career spanning over 30 years. A couple of her history making contributions to NASA were her calculations for Alan B Shepard in the Freedom 7 and for John Glenn in Friendship 7. Katherine performed the trajectory analysis calculations for Alan B Shepard's 1961 NASA mission. This mission, known as the Mercury Redstone 3: Freedom 7, essentially helped us understand man’s capabilities in a space environment and the ability to return from space safely. It was the first United States spaceflight! The following year, John Glenn’s mission, known as the Mercury- Atlas: Friendship 7. The purpose of this mission was to send a man into orbit around the Earth. At the time of this mission NASA had begun to shift from using “human computers” to the IBM (International business Machine) to calculate the equations that would control the trajectory of this spacecraft. Katherine’s work was the most influential on this mission because John Glenn, the first man to orbit the Earth, personally asked Katherine to check the numbers behind the machine. Astronaut Glenn famously saying, “ get the girl…if she says they're good then I’m ready to go”.
Katherine Johnson’s contribution to STEM speaks for itself; she was the first woman in 1960 to receive credit as a co-author on a research report in the Flight Research Division. She persevered in a field where everyday she had to deal with the realities of segregation until NACA turned into NASA, officially banning segregation in the facility in 1958. She finally received public recognition at the age of 97. On November 24, 2015, she was presented by former President Barack Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor.
Two years later, in 2017, the iconic movie Hidden Figures was released, making her even more well-known. In the humblest of ways, she teaches young Black children, especially young Black women how you can be whatever you want to be. Furthermore, to be proud of the work you do. We appreciate having the privilege to honor her life and legacy as a trailblazer for women in STEM.
Written by: Serenity Givens-Sheets
Katherine Johnson wrote her inspiring biography entitled, "Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson" that tells her story of living her life with her father's words in mind, "You are no better than anyone else, and nobody else is better than you."
Details can be found at her official website: https://www.katherinejohnsonfoundation.org/books-resources/
Katherine Johnson Quotes:
"Every time engineers would hand me their equations to evaluate, I would do more than what they'd asked. I'd try to think beyond their equations. To ensure that I'd get the answer right, I needed to understand the thinking behind their choices and decisions,"
"I didn't allow their side-eyes and annoyed looks to intimidate or stop me. I also would persist even if I thought I was being ignored. If I encountered something I didn't understand, I'd just ask. … I just ignored the social customs that told me to stay in my place."
"Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, there will always be science, engineering and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics. Everything is physics and math." NASA Trailblazers and Legends STEM Conference in 2010
"I liked what I was doing, I like work, I like the stars and the stories we were telling and it was a joy to contribute to the literature that was going to be coming out but little did I think it would go this far.” Katherine Johnson interview at age 97.
