Katherine Johnson: The Girl Who Loved to Count
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
“I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed … anything that could be counted, I did.” So said Katherine Johnson, recipient of the 2015 National Medal of Freedom.
Born in 1918 in the little town of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Johnson was a research mathematician, who by her own admission, was simply fascinated by numbers. Fascinated by numbers and smart to boot, for by the time she was 10 years old, she was a high school freshman--a truly amazing feat in an era when school for African-Americans normally stopped at eighth grade for those could indulge in that luxury.
Her father, Joshua, was determined that his bright little girl would have a chance to meet her potential. He drove his family 120 miles to Institute, West Virginia, where she could continue her education through high school. Johnson's academic performance proved her father's decision was the right one: Katherine skipped though grades to graduate from high school at 14, from college at 18.
In 1953, after years as a teacher and later as a stay-at-home mom, she began working for NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA. The NACA had taken the unusual step of hiring women for the tedious and precise work of measuring and calculating the results of wind tunnel tests in 1935. In a time before the electronic computers we know today, these women had the job title of “computer.” During World War II, the NACA expanded this effort to include African-American women. The NACA was so pleased with the results that, unlike many organizations, they kept the women computers at work after the war. By 1953 the growing demands of early space research meant there were openings for African-American computers at Langley Research Center’s Guidance and Navigation Department – and Katherine Johnson found the perfect place to put her extraordinary mathematical skills to work.
As a computer, she calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Even after NASA began using electronic computers, John Glenn requested that she personally recheck the calculations made by the new electronic computers before his flight aboard Friendship 7 – the mission on which he became the first American to orbit the Earth. She continued to work at NASA until 1986 combining her math talent with electronic computer skills. Her calculations proved as critical to the success of the Apollo Moon landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program, as they did to those first steps on the country's journey into space.
From honorary doctorates to the 1967 NASA Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft and Operations team award (for pioneering work in the field of navigation problems supporting the five spacecraft that orbited and mapped the moon in preparation for the Apollo program) Katherine Johnson has led a life positively littered with honors. But on Tuesday, November 24, 2015, she will receive the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Barack H. Obama.
Not bad, for a little girl from West Virginia, who coincidentally (or maybe not) was born on August 26: Women's Equality Day.
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Great article !
Katherine Johnson celebrated her 100th birthday on August 26, 2018.
She is an amazing person. I saw her interviewed and she is so humble and sweet, and yet she is brilliant and ahead of her time. I saw the movie, "Hidden Figures" about her and her 2 other friends who worked at NASA, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, and these women had it all, brains, grace, patience, and dedication. Truly amazing people!
Great find!
Yes, she is. I only recently learned about her and thought it would be a good article to share on NT for Black History Month.
Thanks for leaving a comment, Perrie!
I'm from WV, and I had never heard of her until the movie "Hidden Figures" came out. Chuck Yeager and Jerry West were part of our WV History classes, but nobody saw fit to include Katherine Johnson (nor, to be fair, John Nash).
Thank you for offering your perspective, sandy. Much appreciated!
sandy said:
Perrie said:
I had posted it a while back......
I'll post it again for those that missed it the last time.....
And for those that caught it, it is WELL WORTH A SECOND LOOK!
2016 Hidden Figures...
Enjoy...
NWM
Thanks. My son watched it at school when his math class had some free time, and on his recommendation, I bought the DVD.
A wonderful look at overcoming the obstacles a society places on those of the "wrong" race or gender.
I liked the part where one of the ladies tells her activist husband that staying the course is the better way.....
A lesson that can never be repeated enough, grace, determination and great need always has a way of overcoming excuses and shortcuts.
Three great Americans, a beacon to guide us, if we would only pay attention.
I loved the scene at the end where the "former" bigot, the one that brought the "Black Only" coffee pot into the office, was getting her a cup of coffee....
The best always rises to the top.....
I had forgotten that, so I had to rewatch it last night.
That and the statement from the character Al Harrison (Kevin Costner)
"Here at NASA, we all pee the same color" after smashing the "whites only" sign.....
That was a bit of dramatic license..... There was no head of the Langley Space Task Group named Al Harrison. The Al Harrison character is largely based on Robert C. Gilruth, the head of the Space Task Group at Langley and later the first director of what is now the Johnson Space Center in Houston. However, the organizational structure of the Space Task Group was much more complicated and was changing quickly during the time period when the movie takes place. For clarity in the movie, the management structure is compressed and the composite character Al Harrison was created.
Also: The character Vivian Mitchell, (played by Kirsten Dunst) reflects the views and attitudes of some of the white women who served in managerial roles at that time, but she does not represent an actual historical person.
The character Paul Stafford, (the coffee pot guy played by Jim Parsons) is a composite of a number of engineers with whom Katherine Johnson worked. In her time with the Space Task Group there was considerable turnover of personnel. Much of her early work on trajectories was done with Ted Skopinski, but there was a team of engineers with whom she worked at the time, including Skopinski, John Mayer, Alton Mayo, Al Hamer and Carl Huss. (all great mathematicians/engineers in their own right whom she rose to lead eventually)
Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) did have a white male mentor named Kazimierz “Kaz” Czarnecki. Kaz was from New Bedford, Massachusetts, but in many other ways the depiction of Karl Zielinski (Olek Krupa) is closely aligned with the real Kaz Czarnecki – especially his recognition of a remarkably underemployed talent and the long-term mentorship. Mary Jackson organized Kaz’s retirement party when he left NASA in 1979.
They really did try to hold to the real story but did take a number of dramatic licenses with it.... One very poignant episode.....
Katherine is charged with checking the computers figures just before the launch cause of a perceived error in the computers calculation of the landing trajectory and Glenn wants the figured checked by the "Girl". This scene takes a bit of dramatic license, but John Glenn did ask for “the girl” (referring to Katherine Johnson) to manually check the calculations generated by the electronic computers that were critical to the mission. This occurred well before the launch, and calculating the output for 11 different variables to eight significant digits took her a day and a half. Her calculations matched the computer’s exactly, giving John Glenn, and everyone else, the confidence that the critical computer software was reliable. (the computer took five minutes) She, was the only one there that could do it as fast as she did. But it also highlightes the advance computers made to the processing of raw numbers in calculations. They still needed her for her ability to see ways to solve problems mathematically. And once it is solved mathematically, it can be solved physically.
She was a genius, and it would have taken a lot longer to do what they did without her...
I'd like to thank you and our other friends who've shared insight into this movie. You've all given me greater knowledge about Katherine Johnson.
Wonderful story and kudos to Ms.Johnson.
She reminds me of another minority women that was a math genius and engineer.
Mary Golda Ross.
Yes she worked directly with Ben Rich and Kelly Johnson in solving the "flutter" problem with P-38's in a high speed dive, she was the first to recognize that it was a moment of pressure problem and mathematically expressed it. It directly lead to the horizontal stabilizer redesign that solved the problem....
She was a pioneer in high speed flight...... Johnson recognized her as a colleague and equal as far as an engineer.
Our history is replete with people who refused to accept barriers.
Someday I wish we praise them without calling out that they were "different" The people that understood their importance sure didn't....
It is because they were ''different'' that their achievements were were more than noteworthy. They became what they did against all odds.
Agreed. I think it's dangerous for us to forget the effect that those prejudices had. He who does not learn from history, and so on.
Cherokee rocket scientist leaves heavenly gift
A great woman......
Let's not derail the article about Ms Johnson and her magnificent accomplishments.
I'll post an article on Ms Ross later.
Hi, Kavika - Thank you. It hasn't bothered me that there were some brief derails, because I learned about other people's accomplishments and will read more about them.
And, I think we should also add - Hedy Lamarr
March is National Women's History Month. I hope you seed an article that showcases her many accomplishments!