The Black Female Mathematicians Who Sent Astronauts to Space

In the 1940s, the first African American women entered the “computing pools,” as they were called, and dozens more joined in the decades following. Some continued on to become managers or engineers at NASA, and all made crucial — but often little-known — contributions to the math that put Americans in space. In her new book about Langley’s female mathematicians, “Hidden Figures”. Before NASA, there was NACA — the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, hired five women to be their first computer pool at the Langley campus. "The women were meticulous and accurate... and they didn't have to pay them very much," NASA's historian Bill Barry says, explaining the NACA's decision. In June 1941, with war raging in Europe, President Franklin Roosevelt looked to ensure the growth of the federal workforce. First, he issued Executive Order 8802, which banned "discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin" (though it does not include gender). Six months later, after the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into the throes of war, NACA and Langley began recruiting African-American women with college degrees to work as human computers. While they did the same work as their white counterparts, African-American computers were paid less and relegated to the segregated west section of the Langley campus, where they had to use separate dining and bathroom facilities. They became known as the "West Computers." Despite having the same education, they had to retake college courses they had already passed and were often never considered for promotions or other jobs within NACA. Katherine Johnson, was something of a child prodigy. Hailing from the small West Virginian town of White Sulphur Springs, she graduated from high school at 14 and the historically black West Virginia State University at 18. In 1938, as a graduate student, she became one of three students—and the only woman —to desegregate West Virginia's state college. Johnson's main job in the lead-up and during the mission was to double-check and reverse engineer the newly-installed IBM 7090s trajectory calculations. Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectory for the Mercury mission that put the first American in space. And before John Glenn made his 1962 orbit of Earth, he asked that Johnson double-check the work of a very different type of computer: the electronic kind, which was, by then, in use at NASA. While Mary Jackson is also considered a "hidden figure," she certainly stood out during her time at NASA. After graduating with dual degrees in math and physical science, she was hired to work at Langley in 1951. After several years as a computer, Jackson took an assignment in assisting senior aeronautical research engineer Kazimierz Czarneckiand he encouraged her to become an engineer herself. To do that, however, she needed to take after-work graduate courses held at segregated Hampton High School. Jackson petitioned the City of Hampton to be able to learn next to her white peers. She won, completed the courses, and was promoted to engineer in 1958, making her NASA's first African-American female engineer—and, perhaps, the only one for much of her career.

The story of Nasa’s black female mathematicians has always been celebrated within the agency, but not widely known about beyond. Following an executive order prohibiting racial discrimination in the defense industry, Nasa’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (Naca) began recruiting African Americans with college degrees in the 1940s for the computer pool.

The agency considered women more patient and detail-oriented than men – and they could be paid less. They were assigned the work of reading, calculating and plotting test data. But the in the pre-civil rights era, African Americans occupied a segregated wing and used separate facilities. They had to use different toilets, one for white people and one for black ones. This meant they had to walk half a mile away, 20 minutes there and back, to go the bathrooms because of the segregation in that time.

Christine Darden, the former director of Langley’s Strategic Communications and Education office, also joined NASA in 1967 as a human computer. She entered a computing pool that was doing the tests for Apollo’s re- entry into the atmosphere, but seeing the work engineers were doing made her certain she wanted to be part of it — as an engineer.

“I had been in an all-black environment, pretty much until I came to NASA,” Darden says. “My entire education was segregated. And when I got there, and I started thinking that I really wanted to pursue engineering and work as an engineer, and I wanted to go to school, one of the toughest decisions to make was I knew that the others in my class would be six or seven white males. And I would be the only female and the only black and that worried me a long time. And I finally just said, ‘I'm going to do it.’ And I did it.”

“In so many ways, these women's lives followed in parallel other aspects of the 20th century, including the Civil Rights Movement and the ‘Brown versus Board of Education’ court decision,” she says. “So many aspects of their lives made for good science and good storytelling.” Read the text and then answer the following questions.

1. Why did they have to retake the courses even though they had already passed them?

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2. Name ways that black people suffered because of segregation.

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3. What was the biggest achievement of Mary Jackson?

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4. What is your opinion about the segregation they had to suffer?

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______Put these events taken from the text and place them in the right order numbering 1 to 8.

a. These women lives changed the civil rights. ____ b. Hidden figures made big contributions. ____ c. 8802 banned discrimination. ____ d. Women were cheaper and accurate for NASA. ____ e. Johnson’s checking IBM 7090s trajectory. ____ f. NASA’s black females have been celebrated at the agency. ____ g. Kazimierz encouraged Jackson to be an engineer. ____ f. They had to walk a long distance to go to the toilet. ____