Katherine Johnson, 'hidden figure' at NASA during 1960s space race, dies at 101

The Hill ^ | 02 24 2020 | Zack Budryk

[yesthatjallen]

Pioneering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose calculations played a major role in the development of the Space Shuttle program, died Monday at the age of 101, NASA confirmed.

Johnson was part of NASA’s “Computer Pool” team in the 1960s, which was largely composed of black women who processed data by hand. They provided the calculations for several of the first successful manned space missions, including Alan Shepard’s in 1961 and John Glenn’s in 1962, when he became the first American to orbit the earth.

Johnson also became the first woman to write a technical report in NASA’s flight research division with a 1960 paper, “Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position,” co-authored with Ted Skopinski. Johnson worked with NASA for nearly three decades before her retirement in 1986.

She was later portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the 2016 film “Hidden Figures” and accompanied Henson to the 2017 Academy Awards.

Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Obama in 2015 and received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2019.

“We're saddened by the passing of celebrated #HiddenFigures mathematician Katherine Johnson. Today, we celebrate her 101 years of life and honor her legacy of excellence that broke down racial and social barriers,” NASA tweeted.

SNIP

[Guenevere]

Agree!
Wonderful movie!

[GingisK]

We seem to be brothers in every respect. I have been told that I get most of my exercise by jumping to conclusions.

[Guenevere]

I’m in a family of engineers.....aerospace being one of them....
....and they had only good things to say about this movie.....maybe one small technical flub

It was a decent movie with old fashion values
The children were respectful....
....the NASA women were professional
There were prejudices, sure, but the movie on a whole had elegance and respect!
It is one of the better movies to come out of Hollywood

[Bigtigermike]

Some Freepers go overboard with their reactions. It’s a good movie and yes while Hollywood took some liberties as they do with all historic-based movies, the story stayed pretty much true except for a few things. It’s a worthwhile movie that’s good for the whole family in my book. These ladies were true hidden figures

[Bigtigermike]

Back then women were assigned to be calculators and computers and men were deemed to be best suited to be engineers. Of course there’s a melding of the two skills and in the movie it’s depicted as such but they kind of were separated in their expertise. In the movie their were whites women as calculators too but these 3 women were exceptional historically-wise in what they did for NASA, especially Katherine Johnson who was key for many of the NASA launches and return home

[wardaddy]

I’m from jackson miss

62 years old

Colored only and segregated pools ended early 60s

We were forcibly bused Christmas break 1969 by Supreme Court order

First city forced to bus for racial parity

Killed the public schools and jackson proper same stroke

Houston area would not have had segregation longer than us

You cannot base history on race from a movie anymore than you’d expect Nazis to translate the Talmud honestly

The Help

Another lying movie about a family I grew up with and knew the dad quite well

Just bullshit from yankeefied daughter

The south is 25-40% black

Even higher in the old days

Nobody and I mean nobody from 1850s on outside the south with tiny black populations has our perspective of sharing the same space with enough blacks thst it matters

I lived much of the 80s in Manhattan

Non southerners love to preach but they are less inclusive to blacks than we were and with fewer to deal with

But urban liberals run the media and the narrative

South bad

Yankees noble and righteous

Can I have a Battle Hymn of the Republic please

We get tired of being judged about blacks from Burlington or Kalisipel or Sioux City

We don’t lord over you and your dead Indians

And we are the last redoubt vote wise

If yankees would just stay away

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Some Freepers go overboard with their reactions.

Yeah, makes it hard to know the real story. Thanks.

[MD Expat in PA]

Also, look at the pictures of this lady—and pretend you just met her as a stranger. Does she look black to you?

[MD Expat in PA]

Another article documenting the fraud: http://gulfcoastcommentary.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-movie-hidden-figures-is-fake-history.html

Not an article but a blog, and one with a lot of racist content.

[Chickensoup]

Yes she does.

In the US at the time of the story she would have been identified as black by both the black and white cultures of the time.

She has some white features but she would be seen as black by all.

[MD Expat in PA]

I don’t get it. We’ve got some people here saying she wasn’t all that smart, didn’t contribute all that much, a glorified secretary or a low level data entry number crunching clerk and then others who say she was brilliant but only because she wasn’t all that black and or “passed” for white.

[Chickensoup]

we have people here with opinions, just opinions.