Celebrating Black Women in NASA! Recommended Reading February is Black History Month. These women are just two of many diverse Mae Among the Stars people who make America wonderful! by Roda Ahmed Katherine Johnson was an Inspired by the story of Mae African American physicist Jemison, the first African Amer- and mathematician. Before ican woman in space. digital computers were When Little Mae was a child, used, human mathemati- she dreamed of dancing in cians did all the calculating. space. She imagined herself Johnson worked in a sec- surrounded by billions of tion called “Colored Com- stars floating gliding and discovering. Follow Mae as she learns that if you can dream it and you work puters,” and was one of several black women work- hard for it, anything is possible. ing for NASA at the time, when work places were Hidden Figures segregated. Her calculations helped send men into by Margot Lee Shetterly orbit and onto the moon. Among her many awards, Johnson was awarded with the Presidential Medal In this beautifully illustrated of Freedom in 2015, which is the highest award a picture book edition, we ex- President can give a civilian. plore the story of four female African American mathemati- Mae Jemison is an cians at NASA, known as American engineer, phys- "colored computers," and how S.T.E.A.M. @ Home icist, and former astro- they overcame gender and naut. As a child, Jemison racial barriers to succeed in a highly challenging February 2021 dreamed of going to STEM-based career. space one day, but no- Young, Gifted And Black Space & Black History ticed none of the astro- by Jamia Wilson nauts looked like her; Month they were all white men. Meet 52 icons of color from the In 1992, Jemison past and present in this cele- achieved her dream, and became the first black bration of inspirational This project is made possible through a grant from: woman to go to space, orbiting the Earth 127 times achievement—a collection of on the space shuttle Endeavor during her mission. stories about changemakers to Since her time at NASA, Jemison has been working to encourage, inspire, and em- advance technology in developing countries and in- power the next generation of spiring young people to work in the sciences. changemakers.