Octavia Spencer Archives

When we think of the Space race, NASA and Aerospace engineering, unfortunately, the last person we think of is the black woman. Through all the grainy black and white film all we see are the faces of white men sprinkled with the occasional white woman as we celebrate man’s crowning technological achievement, as we conquer space travel. In fact, for my middle name “Glenn” I have Friendship 7 Astronaut John Glenn to thank for that honor and my mother who gave me that name died without ever knowing the real hero was a young black woman who was roughly the same age as her. Then alone comes Margot Lee Shetterly’s gem, Hidden Figures: The Story of the Africa-American Woman who Helped win the Space Race. This wonderful book, and now movie chronicle the lives of three extraordinary women, Dorothy Johnson Vaughan, Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson and Mary Jackson, as they not only help but were integral to the success of our space program.

Dorothy Johnson Vaughan was born in Kansas City Missouri in September of 1910, the daughter of Annie and Leonard Johnson. Her family moved to Morgantown, West Virginia, where she graduated from Beechurst High School in 1925. Receiving a full-tuition scholarship, she graduated at the age of 19 with a B.A. in mathematics in 1929 from Wilberforce University, a historically black college located in Wilberforce, Ohio. Although encouraged by professors to do graduate study at Howard University, Johnson soon started working as a teacher. She wanted to assist her family during the Great Depression. Dorothy married Howard S. Vaughan Jr. in 1932, and the couple had four children. In 1943 Vaughan began what developed as a 28-year-career as a mathematician and programmer at Langley Research Center part of the Human-Computer project. Vaughan, portrayed in the movie by Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, specialized in calculations for flight path, the Scout Project, and FORTRAN computer programming. Dorothy not only taught herself FORTRAN but taught workers under her supervision as well.

Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson was born in 1918, to Joshua and Joylette Coleman in White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. She was the youngest of four children. Her father was a lumberman, farmer, and handyman and worked at the Greenbrier Hotel. Her mother was a former teacher. Her parents emphasized the importance of education. Coleman showed a talent for math from an early age. Because Greenbrier County did not offer public schooling for African-American students past the eighth grade, the Coleman parents arranged for their children to attend high school in Institute, West Virginia. The family split their time between Institute during the school year and White Sulphur Springs in the summer. Coleman graduated from high school at age 14. At age 15, she began attending West Virginia State College, a historically black college. As a student, Coleman took every math course the college offered. Multiple professors took Coleman under their wings, including chemist and mathematician Angie Turner King, who had mentored her throughout high school, and W.W. Schiefflin Claytor, the third African-American to receive a Ph.D. in math. Claytor added new math courses just for Coleman. Coleman graduated summa cum laude in 1937, with degrees in math and French, at age 18. After graduation, she moved to Marion, Virginia, to teach math, French, and music at Carnegie High School, a school for African-American students. In 1938, Coleman became the first African-American woman to desegregate the graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. She was one of three African-American students, and the only female, selected to integrate the graduate school after the United States Supreme Court ruling Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938). The court ruled that states that provided public higher education to white students also had to provide it to black students, to be satisfied either by establishing black colleges and universities or by admitting black students to previously white-only universities. At NACA, (the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which would become NASA) Johnson calculated the trajectories, launch windows and emergency backup return path for many flights from project Mercury. In the movie, we see Oscar-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson guides our heroine Katherine to heroic heights as she singlehandedly rescues John Glenn’s Friendship 7 historic orbit of the Earth. In 2015 President Obama awarded Katherine the United State’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential medal of freedom.

Mary Jackson, portrayed by newcomer Janelle Monae. was born on April 9, 1921, to Ella (Nee Scott) and Frank Winston. She grew up in Hampton, Virginia, where she graduated from the all-black George P. Phenix Training School with highest honors. Mary Jackson earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and Physical Science from Hampton Institute in 1942. She was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first Sorority founded by and for African-American women.Jackson served for more than thirty years as a Girl Scout leader. In 1958 Jackson became the first black female engineer at NASA. She was noted in the 1970s for helping black children in her community create a miniature wind tunnel for testing planes. Jackson was married with two children. She died on February 11, 2005, at age 83.

How was the achievement and accomplishments of these women glossed over and hidden for so many years? Did race or gender play a role in relegating these pioneers of the space program to third, fourth or even fifth class citizens, when they were truly the vanguards of space exploration? The truthful answer to that question is NASA much like our Country was segregated and had little use for parading and celebrating the accomplishments of black people and women. Black workers in the Human Computer Project were stationed miles away from their white counterparts making due with less pay and shabbier accommodations. Black people were responsible for many great inventions that this Country has benefited from yet they still remain nameless. Countless patents and ideas have been stolen along with the identities of rightful recipients. Women have also not fared well while lady liberty sits outside the United States shores, women continue to get the short end of the stick. In 2017, like in 1962 women are still paid less than a man for the same work. John Lennon and Yoko Ono put it best when they sang, “Women are the Niggers of the World”. Our nation just elected for President a male Buffoon over the most qualified person who happens to be a female. I’ll take it a step further the nation voted for a black man before a white female and President Obama and I thought she was more qualified than him. So with this post, I salute you, Dorothy Johnson Vaughan, I salute you Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, I salute you Mary Jackson hidden no more Godspeed Sisters, Godspeed!