![]() In that role, Vaughan blazed a trail, mastering the newest electronic computer programming technologies. Vaughan and many other computers took new jobs in the Analysis and Computation Division, which was not segregated by race or gender. When NACA became NASA in 1958, the agency began to eliminate segregated facilities, including West Computing. During her career, she oversaw both Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson. She finally succeeded in 1949, becoming the first African American woman manager at NACA. Nevertheless, she continued to pursue a title worthy of her experience and skillset. For years, Vaughan was passed over for promotions despite her skills as a mathematician. Vaughan declined and took a job in the West Area Computing unit at Langley Research campus in 1943. Her professors recommended that she pursue further graduate study at Howard University. Vaughan majored in mathematics and French. When she was 15 years old, Dorothy Vaughan received a full tuition scholarship to study at Wilberforce University, the first private historically Black college. Hampton City Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.ĭorothy Vaughan. That year, she also published her first report, “Effects of Nose Angle and Mach Number on Transition Cones at Supersonic Speeds,” with Czarnecki. After completing the necessary courses, Jackson became the first African American woman engineer at NASA in 1958. When Jackson appeared before a judge at Hampton City Hall to make her case, she was approved for enrollment. Because the school was segregated, the City of Hampton had to approve Jackson’s participation in the program. Although the University of Virginia ran the program, classes were held at Hampton High School. Czarnecki suggested that she enroll in a special training program to transition from a mathematician to an engineer. Jackson gained lots of hands-on experience in this role, but she had bigger dreams: to become an engineer herself. Because of her mathematical skill, engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki invited Jackson to join his team working on the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel. Jackson worked as a West Area computer for two years. Jackson)Īfter starting at NACA in 1951, Mary W. Courtesy of NASA Langley Research Center, restored by Adam Cuerden, public domain, 2. ![]() Mary Jackson holding a wind tunnel model. NASA Langley Research Center Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. ![]() Johnson considered her contributions to Project Apollo as her greatest achievement. During the 1960s, her math also helped Project Apollo to send astronauts to the moon and make the moon landings a reality. During this mission, John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. ![]() The next year, Johnson also verified an electronic computer’s calculations for the Friendship 7 mission. In 1961, she analyzed the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 mission, the first human spaceflight completed by the United States. This assignment led to some of the achievements for which Johnson is best known. She was quickly reassigned to the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division. For her first two weeks, Johnson worked in the all-African American West Area Computing section. When Katherine Johnson began her 33-year career in 1953, Langley Research Center was racially segregated. NASA Langley Research Center Historic District (Katherine Johnson) Katherine Johnson working as a "computer" at NASA in 1966. This article features properties in the National Register of Historic Places that are related to their stories. Nevertheless, African American women played a critical role in the Space Race and rose to new heights as mathematicians, computer programmers, team project leads, and engineers at NASA. African American women faced additional barriers because of racial discrimination. At the time, opportunities for women to advance in their careers were limited. The agency did not open these positions to African American women until 1943 to address labor shortages during World War II. NACA began hiring white women as computers in 1935. Many of these women got their start as “human computers,” performing complicated calculations that supported the work of male engineers. During the 1950s and 1960s, they joined dozens of other African American women who crunched numbers and processed data for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and its successor, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In 2016, the film Hidden Figures skyrocketed Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan to household names. The content for this article was researched and written by Jade Ryerson, an intern with the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.
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