Essay On Katherine Johnson

She was very gifted at math, helped send the astronauts to the moon the first time for the first moonwalk, went to high school at ten and graduated at 14. Being discriminated against, known as a computer in a skirt. Forced to sit at a different table than her colleagues. Always had to walk halfway across campus to use the restroom. All because of the color of her skin. Her name was Katherine Johnson. She was one of the few women to work at NASA during the 1900’s. During the time she was alive there was still racisim and sexisum against women. Despite all the odds, she pushed through to show them what she was capable of. Lots of her efforts often went unnoticed until later, all was revealed. Here are some of the untold stories of Katherine Johnson. 

Katherine Johnson is known as one of the first women at NASA who lead the way for future generations of women in STEM. The time she was at NASA, it was very uncommon for women to do engineering. On top of that, she had the descrimination of the color of her skin as well. Segregation had not been abolished at the time she was at NASA. She had gone through lots of adversity starting very early in her life. From age ten, she had started high school. After that she graduated at age 14, and went on to get a college degree. At this time, this was very uncommon for african-american people. About 2% of african american women got college degrees and of the 2%, 60% went on to become teachers. In Katherine’s time zero percent of women went on to become engineers. In 1939, she became the first woman to go to West-Virginia graduate school. It was very hard to find places that would even accept people of color. She had been stopped from even applying to certain colleges because she was african-american. Once she graduated from college at 18, she went on to be a teacher. Katherine had chosen teaching because this was because one of the only jobs women could get in the 1900’s, let alone african-american women. Even though she had gotten the same education as white colleagues, she was paid less. This was again all about the color of her skin. Throughout her entire life she had been told, “That as blacks, they would not be good enough-smart enough-to sit next to whites in a classroom and succeed.” (Hidden Figures, 154) They were continually being put down by society, told they would never be as good as whites. 

When a job opportunity opened up to use her incredible math skills, she took it. Soon after, she had started her work at NSCA (NASA) as a mathematician, or as they called it human computers. Upon arriving there she had noticed the separation of the blacks and whites. The whites had their own bathrooms, workstations, and lunchrooms. While Katheine’s bathrooms and lunchrooms were halfway across campus. At that time the women who worked at NASA were known as Katherine said, “computers that wore skirts.” When the time arose to go to the briefings, Katherine had been told, “The girls don’t usually go.” Dumbfounded she didn’t understand why this meant she couldn’t go as well. After being told she was not supposed to attend, she kept insisting. This went on for so long that they got too tired of telling her no and just let her in. Through her persistence she had succeeded in breaking down just one barrier that she faced.

The bathrooms and lunchrooms were just anothering problem she faced. She stayed diligent to her work and always put in the most effort she could, but when it came to the bathrooms they were kept separate. Unknowingly, she had been using the white restrooms since she had arrived. Once she found out however she would not change it. She continued to use the white restrooms the rest of the time and no one said anything about that. Fighting against the thing she hated most in the most subtle ways, slowing breaking down the segregation barriers.

Lunchrooms are typically a place of socialization and eating, typically as one united group of people. For Katherine however, she had an entirely different lunchroom halfway across the campus for african americans. Facing this segregation once again, she decided to eat at her workstation to limit the amount of segregation she felt was present. Katherine even talked about this specific experience saying, “I didn’t feel any segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn’t feel it.” 

After Katherine had been working at NASA for some time, her husband fell very ill. She had to take up teaching again to support her sick husband. In this time she had to rely on the strong relationships she had in her life. Her daughters were some of these people. Katherine knew she had to be strong for her kids. She depended on these relationships to keep her going. Johnson was very resilient and never gave up in whatever she was placed in. Her husband died five days before Christmas, 1956 from a tumor. 

She had returned to NASA soon after, taking up the work just as she had done previously. When she returned she had been working on a report, by the time she was about to finish it, it was almost entirely written by her. However, because of the time she had lived in, she was unable to put her name on the report. Everyone knew this was very unfair, and one of her male colleagues spoke up and told her boss she had already done most of the work, so he should just let her finish it and let her put her name on the work. After this, Katherine finished the report and got to write her name on it. Katherine had been the first woman to put name on a report. This turn of events was followed by Katherine putting her name on 25 other reports. 

Even though Katherine had gone through all of this segregation, she continued to push through all of it. Katherine had to work day and night, putting in the best effort possible, to show what she could do. Judgement was something she was not afraid of. In everything she did she didn’t look for others approval. Everything she did was for herself and other women like her. It was very known that Katherine was good at what she did. She slowly broke barriers through her persistence of wanting equality. Slowly over time, women could attend briefings, use the white restrooms and feel like they were more equal with their colleagues. They could also start to put their names on reports. Johnson was very strong and never gave up, even with the circumstances she was placed in.