Remembering the Life and Legacy of Katherine Johnson
As we celebrate Black History Month, The Green Book Project will highlight the lives of four great Black Americans. Our second African American trailblazer is mathematician and national hero, Katherine Johnson. Katherine Johnson passed away on February 24th, 2020 at the age of 101!
Katherine Johnson was a great mathematician who led a remarkable life. Although Johnson was born at a time when women, especially Black women, were not expected to pursue a career, she did. Most surprising of all, she pursued and excelled at a career in mathematics. This was a field heavily dominated by white men.
Early Life
Katherine was born on August 26, 1918 in White Sulfur Springs, W. Virginia. Katherine loved math. She was exceptionally bright and excelled at her studies. At that time, schools for ‘colored’ people only went to 8th grade in White Sulfur Springs. Katherine’s father, Joshua Coleman, moved the family from White Sulfur Springs to Institute, W. Virginia (125 miles away) so that Katherine and her three siblings could attend school beyond 8th grade.
At age ten Katherine attended high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. She went on to enroll in college on the same campus and graduated at age eighteen. While in college she was mentored by W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in mathematics. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and French in 1937. After college Katherine became a math teacher. Two years later she married James Goble and started a family.
Breaking Barriers at NASA
In 1952, when Katherine was 34, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the precursor to NASA, was hiring African American women to solve math problems. Katherine began working at Langley in 1953 analyzing data from flight tests. Sadly, her husband died of cancer in December 1956. Despite this personal loss, her expertise would soon require her to focus on major events unfolding on the world stage.
In 1957 Russia launched Sputnik, which started the space race, and changed the trajectory of Katherine’s life (pun intended). This, coupled with the heightened tensions of the Cold War, led to the US’s desperate bid to put a man into orbit before Russia. Born of this push, Project Mercury was formed. Project Mercury would be the first of several manned space-flight programs. Katherine’s job was to calculate space-flight trajectories for Project Mercury. In 1960, she co-authored a paper on the equations used for orbital spaceflight. She was the first woman to have received credit for authoring a research report.
On May 5, 1961, at the height of the space race, Katherine was responsible for providing trajectory analysis for the first American in space, Alan Shepard. By 1962 NASA was using computers to calculate the complex mathematical equations required for controlling the trajectory of John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission capsule. As computers were new, and were prone to glitches, Glenn did not fully trust them. And as was depicted in the movie Hidden Figures, Glenn specifically requested Katherine to check the computer’s calculations by hand. Once she confirmed the projections, Glenn said he was ‘good to go.’ Seven years later, she created the navigational tracking for the first moon landing.
Achievements
Katherine retired from NASA in 1986. Katherine’s remarkable career was marked by many achievements including:
Legacy and Honors
Johnson has been memorialized in many ways, both before and after her death. Buildings, images, scholarships and even satellites have been endowed with her name.
- In 2018 West Virginia State University erected a life-size statue of her on campus and established a STEM scholarship in her honor.
- In 2020 the National Society of Black Engineers, DC chapter (NSBE DC) established the Katherine Johnson Trailblazer Scholarship in her honor.
- On November 6, 2020, Argentinian commercial satellite operator Satellogic, launched a satellite into space named after Katherine (ÑuSat 15, COSPAR 2020–079G).
- In February 2021, Northrop Grumman named its Cygnus NG-15 spacecraft the SS Katherine Johnson. The USS Katherine Johnson supplies the International Space Station.
- Mattel created a Katherine Johnson Barbie as part of their Inspiring Women Series, the doll even wears a NASA id badge around her neck.
Facilities named after Katherine Johnson
Two NASA facilities have been named in her honor: the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility and the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility.
- The Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility a 40,000 sq. ft. building built in 2016 at Langley. The opening of the facility also coincided with the 55th anniversary of Alan Shepard’s historic rocket launch and splashdown, which was successful due to Johnson’s calculations. During the ceremony, Deputy Director Lewin said,
“Millions of people around the world watched Shepard’s flight, but what they didn’t know at the time was that the calculations that got him into space and safely home were done by today’s guest of honor, Katherine Johnson.”
- NASA renamed the Independent Verification and Validation Facility, in Fairmont, West Virginia, to the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in 2019.
- In June 2019, George Mason University named the largest building on their SciTech campus, the Katherine G. Johnson Hall.
- In 2020, Bethel School District, Washington, named its newest school the Katherine G. Johnson Elementary.
- In 2020, the City of Fairfax, Virginia voted to change the name of one of their middle schools from that of a confederate soldier to Katherine Johnson Middle School.
- In 2021, San Juan Unified School District, in Sacramento California named its newest school Katherine Johnson Middle School.
In Film and Popular Culture
In November 2016, Katherine was portrayed in the “Space Race” episode of the short-lived NBC TV show Timeless.
In December 2016, Hidden Figures was released. The highly acclaimed film was a commercial success that brought Margot Lee Shetterly’s book to the big screen and thereby, worldwide audiences for the first time. It brought long overdue recognition to Katherine and the great Black women who worked in the shadows for so long at NASA. There is no doubt that the sudden flurry of awards, honors and dedications that occurred soon after the film’s release was due to the awareness it created.
In the film, Katherine Johnson was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson. During the 89th Academy Awards, Taraji and Katherine appeared alongside each other. Katherine received a standing ovation.
And, when President Obama awarded Katherine with the Presidential Medal of Freedom he stated,
“Katherine G. Johnson refused to be limited by society’s expectations of her gender and race while expanding the boundaries of humanity’s reach.”
Katherine Johnson is an inspiration to women in general and Black women in particular. As a little girl, who dreamed of working for NASA one day, I wish I had known then that Katherine already was. It is sad that there is a current new wave of Jim Crow era thinking that advocates for laws to ban the history and accomplishments of Black people from public schools. When we consider this was the same climate that Katherine worked in, it’s inconceivable that lawmakers in this country still cling to the belief that erasure of Black voices and influence is not only acceptable, but lawful.
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