Forgive my use of the title if it in any way offends you. That is not my intent. It was the language used in a movie I
recently and finally had a chance to watch, “Hidden Figures”.
If you have not seen it or read the book of the same name,
you should. The story is the historical
events regarding NASA employees Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary
Jackson. In a nutshell, African-American
women were directly responsible for helping to put the first American astronauts into
space.
Again, like many other important incidents in human history,
this very important aspect of the success of NASA is not included in most
history recollections of this period. Another
example of this type of selective recollection of history is a photographic
collection of WWII events that MSN published recently in the news section which
had a photo showing a group of men in a concentration camp, all with triangles
on their prison garb. The caption was
about Jewish men in a concentration camp. I wrote to MSN to explain their mistake and
how tired I was of history being swept under the rug so to speak. Google the “triangle patch in concentration
camps” if you do not understand the reference.
Based on an articles I read on www.essence.com, dated January 30, 2017, and www.shapeitrecruitment.co.uk,
dated January 23, 2017, and some information from my ever favorite Wikipedia, here
are some interesting facts regarding these exceptional women. These facts give light to the intelligence
and perseverance of their examples of the finest humanity has to offer.
Katherine Johnson, graduated from Virginia State High School
at the age of 14. By 18, she had earned
a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and French, summa cum laude, from West
Virginia State University. She then
taught from 1930 to 1951, both math and French, until she found out that NACA (National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics which later became NASA) was accepting
applications from African-American women for “human computer” roles. She applied and landed a job working as a human
computer and surprised her supervisors with her brilliant mathematical skills
as well as her very inquisitive mind.
She was then transferred, after only two weeks, to Langley’s
flight research division. From there,
Katherine managed to talk her way into attending briefing meetings which was unheard
of for a woman at the time, let alone an African-American woman. She went on to become the final authority for
the flight calculations of Alan Shepard’s space flight and later for John
Glenn’s successful orbit in 1961.
Katherine went on to work for NASA on the space shuttle
program until her retirement in 1983.
Since then she has been awarded numerous awards and honors. These include the 1967 NASA Lunar Orbiter
Spacecraft and Operations team award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The latter was awarded to her by President
Obama on November 24, 2015. In 2006,
NASA unveiled the new $30M Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility
in Langley.
Dorothy Vaughan, born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1910, was
an exceptionally gifted student who graduated in 1929 from Wilberforce University,
at the age of 19, with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. Initially, she was a teacher and mother.
Dorothy went to work for NACA in 1943 as a mathematician on
a temporary basis. Even with the anti-discrimination
Executive Order 8802 issued by Franklin D. Roosevelt that made it illegal to
discriminate against people in the defense industry (which NACA was considered
part), she along with all African-American employees had to work in separate
areas and in this case, the West Area Computing Unit.
She became the lead for the West Area Computing Unit and ran
this for 10 years. In 1958, Dorothy
joined the new Analysis and Computation Division and became an expert in
FORTRAN programming. This move came
shortly after NASA abolished segregation in the work environment. She worked directly on the SCOUT (Solid
Controlled Orbital Utility Test) Launch Vehicle Program. This program became one of the most reliable
and successful launch vehicles. Before
her retirement in 1971, she worked with both Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson
on John Glenn’s orbital flight.
Mary Jackson was born in 1921 and grew up in Hampton,
Virginia. She earned a bachelor’s
degrees in mathematics and physical science from Hampton Institute in
1942. After graduation, Mary worked a
series of different jobs including teaching, receptionist, and bookkeeping.
In 1951, Mary was recruited by the NACA. She started as a research mathematician, or “human
computer”, at the Langley Research Center in her hometown of Hampton,
Virginia. There she worked under Dorothy
Vaughan. She found the segregation and
treatment as a lesser human being difficult to deal with and was ready to leave
the organization. She had a chance
meeting with another supervisor who offered her a position in his own
department. Mary accepted and went on to
be promoted to aeronautical engineer.
In 1978, Mary moved into human resources with NASA. Up until her retirement in 1985 she worked to
help other women and minorities progress in their careers. She was a strong believer in education and
its power to help you to standout and be promoted.
Why focus on this?
Very simple. The most important
influences in my early life were all women of color. From the beautiful and sweet Latina woman who
took care of me in Laredo, Texas to the two separate women who took care of me
from the age of about 5 to 7 in Livingston, Texas.
The first caregiver, I was far to young to remember her
name, but I know she crossed the border every day to come and care for us. I believe I was younger than 5, but do not
remember exactly. I remember her
kindness and how she always smelled of wonderful spices, laughed loudly, and
rattled off in rapid fire Spanish. Had
no clue what she was saying, but she gave the best hugs, cooked the most
delicious foods, and was fiercely protective of us kids. One night, don’t recall any of the specifics,
but someone tried to break into the house while my parents were out, and she
was taking care of us. She not only got
hold of my parents and the police, but also hid us while holding I believe a
fireplace poker.
Next was Jessie, a young African-American woman who probably
wasn’t over 20 to 22 years of age. She
was so sweet and had an incredibly gentle spirit. I remember her becoming really ill and going
with my Mom, who was a nurse, to check on Jessie. I was fairly poor, but didn’t know it;
however, Jessie and her family lived in a one room shack basically that
actually had newspaper on the inside walls for covering and some bit of
insulation. I remember being moved to
tears by the time we left and wanting to know from my Mom why Jessie had to
live that way and why couldn’t she live with us.
Last of these wonderful women was Nanny. Yep, that was all I ever knew her by per her
choice. She was this larger than life
and terribly stereotypical of the name, geography, and time period (mid-1960’s). She was this wonderfully kind and loving
large African-American woman who was probably in her 50’s. Nanny was hired only to take care of us kids,
but she went ahead and cleaned, did laundry, cooked, and above all, would never
leave us with my father alone (he is another whole story for far more in-depth writing
at some point).
Nanny gave the best damn hugs possible. She also always repaired, usually stitching
up, my Leo the Talking Lion every time I damaged it. She was my friend, my protector, and was
someone as a small child I loved very much.
Nanny was a light in a life that at times was very dark.
Then I think of the other major influences in my life. Many have been women, and many have been
someone who in someway has struggled with discrimination in some way. Whether this be due to race, religion, ethnicity,
gender, sexual orientation, political beliefs, disabilities, or any other damn
reason some asshole can think of to hate you or try to keep you down.
The common thread is always their humanity. Their belief in better. Their refusal to give into the hate of those
who would persecute them. Their lack of
hate as a response to their mistreatment.
Truly brave individuals.
If your response to injustice is silence, then you are part
of the injustice. Don’t be.
Namaste,
Tom
