Katherine Johnson

Creola Katherine Johnson (born Coleman; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020) was an American mathematician and human computer. A human computer was a person who did math by hand. Her calculations of orbital mechanics while working at NASA were very important to the success of the first and later U.S. crewed spaceflights. She worked at NASA and its earlier group, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, for 33 years. She became known for being very good at hard calculations by hand. She also helped people begin using computers to do jobs that people had done before. NASA said she was an important part of history as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist.

Johnson calculated paths for spacecraft, launch windows, and safe return routes for Project Mercury flights. These included flights for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. She also calculated paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on trips to the Moon. Her work was an important part of the start of the Space Shuttle program, and she helped make plans for a human mission to Mars.

In 2015, President Barack Obama gave Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2016, she received the Silver Snoopy Award from NASA astronaut Leland D. Melvin and a NASA Group Achievement Award. The actress Taraji P. Henson played her in the 2016 film Hidden Figures.

In 2019, the United States Congress gave Johnson the Congressional Gold Medal. That same year, NASA announced a new center named after her, the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility, in her home state of West Virginia. In 2021, she was added to the National Women's Hall of Fame after she had died.

Early life

Katherine Johnson was born Creola Katherine Coleman on August 26, 1918, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Her mother, Joylette Roberta (née Lowe), was a teacher. Her father, Joshua McKinley Coleman, was a lumberman, farmer, and handyman. He also worked at the Greenbrier Hotel. Katherine was the youngest of four children. She was very good at math from a young age.

Greenbrier County did not offer public school for African-American students past eighth grade. So the Colemans sent their children to a high school in Institute, West Virginia. The school was on the campus of West Virginia State College (WVSC). Katherine started there when she was ten. The family lived in Institute during the school year and in White Sulphur Springs in the summer.

Johnson finished high school at age 14 and went to WVSC, a historically black college. She took every math class the college offered. Several teachers helped her. One was the chemist and mathematician Angie Turner King, who had also taught her in high school. Another was W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third African-American to earn a doctorate in mathematics. Claytor even added new classes just for Johnson. In 1937, at age 18, she graduated summa cum laude with degrees in mathematics and French. She joined Alpha Kappa Alpha and took a teaching job at a black public school in Marion, Virginia.

In 1939, Johnson married her first husband, James Goble. She left her teaching job and started a graduate math program. She stopped at the end of the first session to focus on her family. She was the first African-American woman to attend graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. She got this chance through WVSC's president, John W. Davis. She was one of three African-American students chosen to join the graduate school. She was also the only woman in the group. This happened because of a 1938 United States Supreme Court ruling, Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada. The ruling said that states offering public college to white students must also offer it to black students.

Career

After her daughters grew up, Johnson went back to teaching. In 1952, a relative told her that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was hiring for its West Area computing section at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, in Hampton, Virginia, near Langley Field. Johnson accepted a job offer in June 1953, and her family moved to Newport News. At first she worked with a group of women who did calculations. Her knowledge of analytic geometry soon helped her work with the all-male flight research team. From 1953 to 1958 she worked as a computer, doing calculations for topics such as gust alleviation for aircraft. She was first assigned to the West Area Computers section, led by Dorothy Vaughan. Laws at the time, first introduced under President Woodrow Wilson, required her and the other African-American women to use separate facilities. Their office was labeled "Colored Computers." Johnson later said she "didn't feel the segregation at NASA," though she knew it was there. Even after the workplace changed, unfair treatment continued. Johnson had to speak up for herself. When a supervisor kept pushing a colleague to finish a report, Johnson completed it. Her name went on the report, which was the first time a woman in her division had her name on one.

In 1958, NACA ended the colored computing pool when it was replaced by NASA, which used digital computers. From 1958 until she retired in 1986, Johnson worked as a computer for the Spacecraft Controls Branch. She calculated the trajectory for the May 5, 1961, space flight of Alan Shepard, the first American in space. She also worked on the launch window for his 1961 Mercury mission. She plotted backup navigation charts for astronauts in case electronic systems failed. When NASA used electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn's orbit around Earth, officials asked Johnson to check the numbers, because Glenn had asked for her specifically. In 1961 her work helped make sure Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 capsule was found quickly after landing. She also helped calculate the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. In 1970 she worked on the Apollo 13 mission, where her backup charts helped set a safe path for the crew's return to Earth. Later she worked on the Space Shuttle program, the Earth Resources Satellite, and plans for a human mission to Mars. In her later years, Johnson encouraged students to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Personal life and death

Katherine and James Francis Goble had three daughters. The family lived in Newport News, Virginia, starting in 1953. James died of a brain tumor in 1956. In 1959, Katherine married James A. "Jim" Johnson, a United States Army officer who had served in the Korean War. They were married for 60 years, until he died in 2019 at age 93. Johnson had six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. She lived in Hampton, Virginia, and encouraged her grandchildren and students to pursue careers in science and technology.

For 50 years, Johnson was a member of Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church, where she sang in the choir.

Johnson died at a retirement home in Newport News on February 24, 2020, at age 101. After her death, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine called her "an American hero" and said, "her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten."

Legacy and honors

Johnson wrote or helped write 26 scientific papers. Her work in space science and computing showed others that a life in science was possible. In 1999, she was named West Virginia State College Outstanding Alumnus of the Year. On November 24, 2015, President Barack Obama gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was honored as a pioneer for African-American women in STEM. Obama said that she "refused to be limited by society's expectations of her gender and race while expanding the boundaries of humanity's reach." NASA noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist."

Two NASA buildings are named for her. A building at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, was named the "Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility" in 2016 and opened in 2017. At the event, Johnson received a Silver Snoopy award. NASA gives this award to people who have made outstanding contributions to flight safety and mission success. In 2019, a facility in Fairmont, West Virginia, was renamed the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility. In 2016, Johnson was named to the BBC's list of 100 Women. Science writer Maia Weinstock included her in a Lego model for Women of NASA. The College of William & Mary gave her an honorary doctorate in 2018. That same year, Mattel announced a Barbie doll that looks like her. In 2019, Government Executive added her to its Government Hall of Fame.

Many schools and places have also been named for her. The DeSoto Independent School District in DeSoto, Texas opened a technology academy in her name. George Mason University named a building for her. Bethel School District in Washington named a school after her. Fairfax County Public Schools and the City of Fairfax, Virginia renamed a middle school. It had been named for Sidney Lanier, a Confederate soldier, poet, and musician. The United States Space Force named a GPS satellite after her. A satellite called ÑuSat 15 was launched in her honor. Northrop Grumman named its Cygnus NG-15 spacecraft, which carried supplies to the International Space Station, the SS Katherine Johnson. Baltimore County Public Schools also named one of its new schools Katherine Johnson Global Academy.

Depiction in media

The film Hidden Figures, released in December 2016, is based on a nonfiction book of the same title by Margot Lee Shetterly. The book was published earlier that year. The film tells the story of Johnson and two other African-American women, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan, who worked as computers at NASA. Taraji P. Henson plays Johnson.

Johnson appeared alongside Henson at the 89th Academy Awards, where the audience gave her a standing ovation. In an earlier interview, Johnson said about the movie: "It was well done. The three leading ladies did an excellent job portraying us." In the 2016 episode "Space Race" of the NBC series Timeless, Johnson is played by Nadine Ellis.

Awards

Katherine Johnson received many awards during her career. She earned NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement awards in 1971, 1980, 1984, 1985, and 1986. In 1977, the Lunar Spacecraft and Operations team received a NASA Group Achievement Award for its work in navigation for spacecraft that orbited and mapped the Moon, which helped prepare for the Apollo program. On December 1, 2016, Johnson received the same NASA Group Achievement Award at a reception at the Virginia Air and Space Center. Her colleagues Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson received it with her. She also received honorary doctorates from several schools. These included SUNY Farmingdale in 1998, Capitol College in Maryland in 2006, Old Dominion University in 2010, West Virginia University in 2016, Spelman College in 2017, and the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 2018. On April 29, 2019, the University of Johannesburg honored her for her important work at NASA.

Johnson's other honors include the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. She also received a Silver Snoopy award from Leland Melvin in 2016. In 2016, she also received the Arthur B.C. Walker II Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. In 2017, she received the Medal of Honor from the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). On November 8, 2019, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. She was also inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2021 and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2024.