Katherine G. Johnson, a NASA mathematician who played a major role in helping America win the space race and her story was included in the 2016 film Hidden Drawings, died Monday. He was 101 years old.
Ever since he started learning to count, Johnson has been in love with numbers. “I've read it all. I count the steps to the street, the steps to the church, the number of dishes and silverware I wash… whatever was the count, I did, ” he said. Johnson's unfulfilled ambition would take him beyond the separated schools of his childhood in West Virginia and all the way to the halls of NASA, where he would become one of the first female and American female employees in the space program.
Born Aug. 26, 1918, in White Sulfur Springs, W.Va., to Joshua and Joylette Coleman, Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson was a very gifted child. Blocked by advice of his fat her
The experience changed Johnson's life. “He received the best education possible at that time (at the Institute),” said Johnson he said in the film Climb Up West Virginia. “You know everyone. It was a small high school and it was fun to be there, but everyone knew it. Everyone in high school knew everyone in college and it was like they were home. ”
After Johnson finished high school at the age of 14, he enrolled at West Virginia State College where he was inspired to continue his rigorous mathematics course, thanks to his mentor William W. Schieffelin Claytor, who encouraged him to follow in his footsteps. "Many professors say that you can't be good at this or that, but they don't always help you," Johnson said. he said of Claytor, who was the third black person for a Ph.D. in math. "Professor Claytor has made sure that I am ready to become a mathematician."
In 1937, when he was just 18, Johnson graduated from West Virginia State with a degree in mathematics and French. A year later, she left her teaching job at a black school to become one of three African American students (and the only black woman) to join a graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown. Although handled by the president of the institution, John W. Davis, Johnson left before completing his family studies with his husband, James Francis Goble. The couple will continue to have three daughters, but Johnson never gave up his passion for math.
More than a decade after dropping out of graduate school to focus on his family, Johnson learned of opportunities that would change the course of his life. Her friend told her husband and husband, both teachers of public schools at the time, that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was hiring African American women to be "personal computers”I have also worked in the Roads & Travel Department. Johnson applied, but NACA had filled that vacancy. He was never willing to give up, but he applied again the following year and was hired. Johnson began working at NACA, author of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in 1953.
At NACA, and after NASA, Johnson completed a complex calculation and analyzed data from flight tests and landed aircraft In 1956, shortly after starting her career, her husband James died of cancer. Bitterness is not Johnson's job. The following year, he gave statistics for "Notes on Space Technology
In 1960, Johnson made history as the report's author, “Determination of the Azimuth Angle in Burnout by Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Local Area”(Pdf). The project includes calculations that determine the position of the spacecraft, and it was the first time a woman in the Flight Research Division had been listed as the author of a research report. A year later, Johnson completed trajectory statistics for 1961 Freedom 7 mission, first the U.S. it puts a man in space. In 1962, Johnson was asked to complete complex calculations that would follow the orbital flight path from flight to the John Glenn & # 39; s Friendship 7. At least NASA built IBM's largest computer network to perform calculations, Glenn luckily asked NASA officials to "look for this girl" to check the numbers before she leaves. Johnson recalled the famous astrologer saying, "If they say it's OK, I'm ready to go." This thread acknowledges the success of Johnson's diligent work.
Aside from his impact on the American space program, Johnson's work was not widely publicized until Margot Lee Shetterly & # 39; s 2016 book, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of Black Women Who Helped Win a Space Race, which has been an award-winning film, Hidden Drawings. The alleged actor, Taraji P. Henson, played Johnson in the film, paying homage to fallen scientist and her NASA peers Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughn for several awards exhibitions.
"I remember getting this text and feeling sad, because it felt like a dream was being taken from me," said Henson he said at the 2017 MTV Awards. "And it became my job, with the whole mission & # 39; person involved in the film, to dispel that myth so that one little girl didn't grow up thinking that her mind could not understand mathematics and science. If it weren't for these women, we weren't in the space."
After more than three decades at NASA & # 39; s Langley Research Center headquarters in Hampton, Va., Johnson retired in 1986, leaving behind a long history of success. During his time there, he authored and co-authored 26 reports, worked on space missions and satellite stations, and did the Apollo program calculations, which led to the first Americans landing on the moon. Although he had to overcome great difficulties in achieving his goals, Johnson still loved his time at NASA. "I found what I was looking for in Langley," he said he said. “This was done by a mathematician in research. I went to work every day for 33 years happy. I never woke up saying, & # 39; I don't want to go to work. & # 39; ”In 2017, NASA we have provided a new research center at Langley by the name of Johnson.
In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded Johnson America's highest honor, President of Medical Freedom, notes, "Katherine was a pioneer who broke the barriers of nationalism and sexuality, showing the younger generations that everyone can do math and science and reach for the stars."
In a previous speech, President Obama he explained, "Black women have always been a part of every major movement in American history — even if they weren't always done.
By giving him the nation's highest honor, he guaranteed Johnson's legacy and accomplishment will never go unnoticed and.
Britni Danielle is a Los Angeles-based writer and editor who combines often with ethnic, gender, and pop culture. Follow him on On Twitter.
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