Research Guides: Katherine Johnson: Biography

Katherine Johnson (August 26, 1918 - February 24, 2020)

Born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, Johnson loved numbers as a child. She started college at West Virginia State University at age 15 and blew through the school catalog's listed courses; her professor created new ones just for her. By 18, she had graduated summa cum laude with degrees in math and French. But career paths for black women were stark in the 1940s, even with a mind as sharp as Johnson's. She taught school for more than a decade before joining the space race as one of the women, black and white, whom NASA (and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA) hired as "computers"— people to do the math that kept NASA running. Continue . . .

Source: Haynes, Korey. “Fighting FOR Visibility.” Astronomy, vol. 45, no. 2, Feb. 2017, p. 44. From Academic Search Complete database.

Book Collection

Hidden Figures: the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race

Hidden Figures: the true story of four black women and the space race

Resources

Rocket Woman The article focuses on the significant contribution of African-American physicist and astronaut Katherine Johnson in several space exploration endeavors of scientists in the U.S. It offers brief overview of Johnson's personal background in which she grew up when segregation or separating people by skin color was legal in the country. It also chronicles Johnson's career at the space agency where in she worked as human computer.
Get the Girl to Check the Numbers This article focuses on the selection of African American mathematician and space pioneer Katherine Johnson to assist U.S. astronaut John Glenn during a space mission in 1962. It discusses Johnson's personal background, the response of Johnson to racism, the efforts of Johnson to get the job and the success of the mission.
Katherine Johnson Did The Math For NASA When It Counted Most A biography of research mathematician Katherine Johnson is presented. It discusses her contribution in the field of space program and manned space flight, her first husband James Goble, and her work at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics of the U.S. Also mentioned are her works at the National Aeronautics & Space Administration.
NASA: Katherine Johnson Biography Biography on Katherine Johnson. NASA.
Pioneering NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson Celebrates 100th Birthday NASA pioneer mathematician Katherine Johnson celebrated her 100th birthday on Sunday. The black West Virginia native helped calculate the trajectory of space missions and was portrayed in the movie Hidden Figures.
OUTLIER - The Story of Katherine Johnson TRAILER
What Matters - Katherine Johnson: NASA Pioneer and "Computer" This week, tune in for an incredible conversation with a NASA Langley pioneer. We'll meet the extraordinary woman whose math skills were so sharp, she was known as the "human computer." Katherine Johnson worked at NASA Langley in Hampton during the 1950's—a woman and an African-American who broke through barriers and made history along the way.
Katherine Johnson Awarded Presidential Medal Of Freedom In 2015 On November 24th, President Obama bestowed the Medal of Freedom, the Nation’s highest civilian honor, to Katherine Johnson—a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mathematician who exhibited exceptional technical leadership, calculating and verifying trajectories that took the first Americans to space and to the moon. Until recently, Johnson’s critical technical contributions to the space race were largely unknown to the world. The contributions and leadership of countless scientific and technical women and people of color who have been tremendous innovators have been left out of American history books, unfortunately.
Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician Facebook, Makers video on Katherine Johnson.