![]() ![]() Katherine has referred to the women in the pool as virtual 'computers who wore skirts.' Their main job was to read the data from the black boxes of planes and carry out other precise mathematical tasks. "At first she worked in a pool of women performing math calculations. Johnson was offered a job in 1953, and she immediately accepted.Īccording to oral history archived by the National Visionary Leadership Project: ![]() They especially wanted African American women for their Guidance and Navigation Department. At a family gathering, a relative mentioned that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), later to become NASA, was looking for new people. ![]() Mathematical career ĭissatisfied with teaching, Johnson decided on a career in mathematics. She was one of three African American students, and the only female, selected to integrate the graduate school after the United States Supreme Court ruling, Missouri ex rel. In 1938, Katherine became the first African American woman to desegregate the graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia. After graduation, Katherine moved to Marion, Virginia, to teach math, French, and music at a small grade school. She graduated summa cum laude in 1937, with degrees in math and French, at age 18. Claytor added new math courses just for Katherine. Schiefflin Claytor, the third African American to receive a PhD in math. Multiple professors took Katherine under their wings, including chemist and mathematician Angie Turner King, who had also mentored Katherine throughout high school, and W.W. As a student, Katherine took every math course the college offered. At age 15, she began attending West Virginia State College. Katherine graduated high school at age 14. The family split their time between Institute during the school year and White Sulphur Springs in the summer. Because Greenbrier County did not offer schooling for black students past the eighth grade, the Coleman children attended high school in Institute, Kanawha County, West Virginia. Her parents emphasized the importance of education. Early on, Katherine showed a talent for math. Her father worked as a lumberman, a farmer, a handyman, and at the Greenbrier Hotel. Katherine Johnson was born in 1918, to Joshua and Joylette Coleman in White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. ![]()
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