42 - West Virginia, Katherine Johnson
I made a last minute switch, which hadn't happened yet. But when I found out Katherine Johnson was born in West Virginia made me thrilled to see it wasn't too late to highlight such a wonderful woman.
West Virginia is the 34th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on March 10, 1920.
A concise description of Mrs. Johnson’s work included “calculating trajectories, launch windows, and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, including those for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American in orbit, and rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon. Her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program, and she worked on plans for a mission to Mars.”
Mrs. Johnson was sent out of County for high school because her aptitude for mathematics was evident, and her home County did not offer public schooling for African-Americans past eighth grade. She attended the school on the WV State College campus from the age of ten. She quickly matriculated into the College after graduating at 14, and she took every math class avaialble to her. Graduating early, she made many life choices, leading her to a graduate degree in 1939 after the Supreme Court require black students to be enrolled as well.
She joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) for their guidance and navigation department. She was known for ignoring the racial and gender barriers, and her assertive nature kept her in high level conversations. She was known as a “computer” until NACA became NASA.
In 2015, President Obama gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2019 the Congressional Gold Medal, just to name a few of many recognitions.
Why this woman?
Watching the movie featuring the women of NASA, “Hidden Figures”, is the first I heard of Katherine. To read of the path, the pattern of consistency and truth to herself is evident. Her family recognized the strengths and value of her intelligence, and worked to place her in institutions that she can thrive. She maintained a strong voice that insisted she belongs in the room. She was the brains behind the research, and she presented and owned it through the end.
In many situations, women’s hard work is absorbed into those of her colleagues, men or women. Stronger personalities take the voice of the work. Sometimes it happens on a fluke. Sometimes, it is taken to make others rise. Women are commonly known for taking on more work, more coordination, without taking the time to stand up and show the work they completed. Honor and reward is not always the driver.
Katherine had a voice that spoke for her team, her gender, her race. She was brilliant and able to use that knowledge to progress some of the most important scientific feats. She put herself in the position to be in the room to continue the development of her work and use her team of “computers” to change the course of science. She stood up respectfully and beautifully. Role model for us all.
West Virginia is the 34th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on March 10, 1920.
A concise description of Mrs. Johnson’s work included “calculating trajectories, launch windows, and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, including those for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American in orbit, and rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon. Her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program, and she worked on plans for a mission to Mars.”
Mrs. Johnson was sent out of County for high school because her aptitude for mathematics was evident, and her home County did not offer public schooling for African-Americans past eighth grade. She attended the school on the WV State College campus from the age of ten. She quickly matriculated into the College after graduating at 14, and she took every math class avaialble to her. Graduating early, she made many life choices, leading her to a graduate degree in 1939 after the Supreme Court require black students to be enrolled as well.
She joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) for their guidance and navigation department. She was known for ignoring the racial and gender barriers, and her assertive nature kept her in high level conversations. She was known as a “computer” until NACA became NASA.
In 2015, President Obama gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2019 the Congressional Gold Medal, just to name a few of many recognitions.
Why this woman?
Watching the movie featuring the women of NASA, “Hidden Figures”, is the first I heard of Katherine. To read of the path, the pattern of consistency and truth to herself is evident. Her family recognized the strengths and value of her intelligence, and worked to place her in institutions that she can thrive. She maintained a strong voice that insisted she belongs in the room. She was the brains behind the research, and she presented and owned it through the end.
In many situations, women’s hard work is absorbed into those of her colleagues, men or women. Stronger personalities take the voice of the work. Sometimes it happens on a fluke. Sometimes, it is taken to make others rise. Women are commonly known for taking on more work, more coordination, without taking the time to stand up and show the work they completed. Honor and reward is not always the driver.
Katherine had a voice that spoke for her team, her gender, her race. She was brilliant and able to use that knowledge to progress some of the most important scientific feats. She put herself in the position to be in the room to continue the development of her work and use her team of “computers” to change the course of science. She stood up respectfully and beautifully. Role model for us all.
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