Katherine Johnson Biography

In the book Hidden Figures written by Margot Lee Shetterly, Katherine Johnson is one of the main characters. Known as a human computer working for NASA. Katherine is a very smart woman who graduated from college when she was 18 years old and when she was 10 years old she attended high school. She is one of the first African Americans to work for NASA. She would work on some of the hardest calculations and would still find ways to solve them. She was a very hard worker but did not get credit for what she did because she is African American, she made history.

Most people don’t know the backstory of one of the first African American women to help the first space launch. Katherine Johnson was one of them. They were called computers because they were African American. She affected the greatest history event of all time.It is a pleasure for me to tell you about the impact Katherine Johnson made in our lives till this day.

She was born in white Sulphur Spring, West Virginia. Goble went to west virginia state college, she became immersed in the math program. Katherine loved to count, counted number of steps, steps into the church, forks, plates, and even bowls when she would wash dishes. Her father knew that his little girl would have a chance to meet her goal. She went to High school at ten years old, graduated at fourteen and started college at fifteen and took classes to be a mathematician. She graduated from college at eighteen. Katherine got married and had children, became a teacher after being a stay at home mom and went to college. She but went back to teach because her husband got sick. June 1953 Katherine was hired at NASA, she figured out paths for space craft to go around earth and land on the moon. For the math katherine was able to do, it helped send astronauts to the moon and back and still be safe. Even after NASA began using electronic computers, John Glenn requested that she personally recheck the calculations. Katherine continued working for NASA until 1986 combining her computer skills and her math skills. Without Mrs. Gobles amazing math skills astronauts would not be able to come back to earth, because they would burn and die because they would not have

Mary worked with the West Computers for 2 years and then she went to work with Kazimierz Kanreki. He was an engineer working on high speed wind tunnels. While she worked with him he offered her the idea to go back to school to study to become an engineer. For Mary to take classes she had to get permission. She had to obtain permission because Virginia school had not desegregated at the time. Mary got to take her classes and she became an engineer. She got to become NASA’s first African American women to have a degree in engineering in 1958.

Mary Jackson was born April 9, 1921, Hampton, Virginia, U.S.A. She was a math genius and an aerospace engineer. most importantly she was the first African American female engineer to work and be the first flight engineers for NASA.

Katherine Portas was born on August 13, 1993 about 10:40 AM. The very first person to hold her was her father, Skip Portas, but the next person to hold her was the mother-in-law of Skip, Anne Godlewski. Anne Godlewski is the mother of Katherine’s mother, Marie. Next to hold Katherine were William Portas and Jessie Portas, Skip Portas’ parents. Anne Godlewski was married to Donald Godlewski, who was in El Paso, Texas at the time of Katherine’s birth. Katherine’s parents took a picture and faxed it to Donald. It is in our oral family history once he received the fax he said “I’m the grandfather of an ink blot!” He had a sense of humor.

One woman that made a major contribution to the field of science was Mae C. Jemison. Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama on October 17th, 1956. Her parents were just average people, her father was a carpenter and her mother an elementary school

Annie Easley was an African American computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist born April 23, 1933 in Birmingham Alabama to Samuel Easley and Mary Hoover. Not having any full recognition of her father Ms. Easley was raised by her mother and was taught early on that education was everything. She attended Holy Family High School and was valedictorian of her class. Easley intended to become a nurse thinking it was the only career open for African American women. She then attended Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and African American Catholic University where she majored in pharmacy. In the early 1950’s Easley married and moved to Cleveland and attended Cleveland State University where their pharmacy program had ended.

In Mae’s early life she was already interested in the aspect of science she knew she wanted to do something in that field. Although when she told her parents and peers this, they discouraged her. Although they didn’t encourage her because women equality and racism were still a little heavy, she persevered. She studied up on different type fields of science in the library, but most times on astrology. She had a dream to be an astronaut, and no one was going to stop her. At the age of sixteen she attended stanford university and got her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and African

Bessie Coleman left a legacy not just in Texas but in the United States that few pilots could ever achieve. She may not have been the first African American to earn a pilot's license but she was the first female African American. When people hear of famous African Americans their first thought automatically goes to Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr but nobody has heard of Bessie Coleman. It is thought that Bessie’s life was shaped by the tragedies she endured. First Bessie was born in early 1892 to illiterate parents that were both English-born slaves and that were children of slaves. Bessie’s father left her and his family in 1901. Her mother and two older brothers went to work later that year. Second, being African American during that time made it difficult for Coleman and her family to accomplish anything. Because of these reasons Bessie lived a life of hardships and tribulations. (notablebiographies.com)

William Johnson was a black man who was a barber in Natchez, Mississippi. William Johnson was a slave when he was young. His freedom at eleven years old followed that of his mother Amy and hi. Sister Adelia. After workings an apprentice to his brother-in-law James Miller, Johnson bought the barbershop in 1830 for three hundred dollars and explain trade to free black boys. It was shortly after he established a barber shop in downtown Natchez that he started to keep a diary. The diary was a mainstay in Johnson’s life until he died in 1851.

A female African-American mathematician who contributed to mathematics was Janice E. Cook. Her birth and death date is unknown, however, she was born in New Orleans. She is one of seven children of Florence L. Cook and Henry Cook. Growing up, she admired her mother, who was an elementary teacher, describing her as an inspirational and heroic person in her life. After Janice completed her studies for the bachelor and masters degree she began a professional career in the corporate arena, however, she wasn’t satisfied. She later realized her true passion was in teaching mathematics as a teacher at the middle and high school levels. Once she determined her true educational passion in life, she continued her studies and gained her pre-doctoral

Katherine Dunham was born June 22, 1909 in Chicago, Illinois (“Katherine Dunham Biography” 1). After her mother’s unexpected death four years after her birth, Dunham would be sent to live with her aunt who would give Dunham her first exposure to music and dance (“Katherine Dunham” Contemporary Black 2). Although she had loved

Katherine Johnson is the main focus in the movie. She gets moved from the West computers where the colored women work to work for Al Harrison who is the director of the space test group in the East Area. Katherine Goble Johnson becomes Harrison’s analytical geometry computer. When she gets there one of the men give her the trash can because he thinks that she is the custodian. Also, Katherine goes to get a cup of coffee and all the men stare at her. The next day there is a coffee pot that says colored. Katherine goes to poor it but the pot is empty. Then Katherine has to use the bathroom and asks her supervisor where’s the bathroom and her supervisor says “I don’t know where your bathroom is.” So she ends up having to run half a mile to the bathroom and back. Further on in the movie Johnson goes to bathroom on a rainy day and when she comes back Al asks her where she goes everyday for 40 minutes. Katherine ends up flipping out explaining that she gets paid poorly,can’t afford pearls,and how she feels because all of them don’t wanna touch the coffee pot just because she’s a colored woman. In the end Katherine goes on to perform calculations for the Apollo II mission to the moon and space shuttle. The movie states that in 2016 there was a building dedicated for her and her work with space travel called Katherine Goble Johnson Computational Building. Also, at the age of ninety seven she was awarded with the Presidential medal of freedom. One of Katherine’s colleges that

We were introduced to Katherine at first in the movie as a child when her school principal was conversing with her parents on her future in academics and to consider putting her in a high school when she was still in 6th grade. She was constantly surrounded by mathematics and was able to solve complex equations that her older classmates could not. Once working for NASA, she successfully completed convoluted equations that her work peers –white men that once thought that they were more superior than her– failed to. When Paul Stafford gives her a pile of calculations that she needs to review, she notices that the confidential information is coloured over with a marker. This makes it impossible to check; therefore she holds the paper up to the light to see through the pen to reveal the words. This results in her figuring out classified information. Accordingly, Mr. Harrison –the space task group secretary– is astonished and