African American Women Who Made a Contribution in NASA

Mary Jackson is one of the African American human computers who worked at NASA. She was on a journey of becoming an engineer at NASA to which she was offered the position. However, she needed to enter a training program at a ‘whites only’ school. Jackson took it to the court and was given permission to attend this school. This shows NASA giving an African American women an opportunity to contribute more to NASA and by her being allowed to attend a ‘whites only’ school it only justifies the progress of the Civil Rights Movement happening at the time and proves that African American women were not denied for the contribution they made during the Space Race in the 1930s to the 1960s. 

Katherine Johnson also worked at NASA. She is an African American who worked as the human computers. She became in charge of computing the trajectories which calculate landings and in an interview she had with Cathy Lewis in 2011 she tells viewers about John Glenn (who was the first person to orbit the earth three times) specifically saying that he would be ready to go up into space once Johnson approved of the calculations made on the trajectories. This shows the trust NASA had in these women and proves that African American women were not denied their contribution made during the Space Race from the 1930s to the 1960s. 

I found it interesting to find out why these African American women were hidden and not given credit for their contributions made which lead me to wonder whether their contributions were even accepted or considered. I had come to find out that their contributions were acknowledged in NASA however they were hidden from the rest of the world. Given the social climate of the country it did make sense. It did not justify it however it did give me insight on why it was handled this way. Certain laws made the work environment become segregated resulting in segregation in the work force. However, when watching the interview Katherine Johnson did with Cathy Lewis it is very interesting to hear from her that she did not feel segregated in there. Even though they worked in separate buildings when they did need to work together it did not feel segregated, she knew it was there, but it did not feel like that. I also found it inspiring to learn about the women who were either in charge or responsible for many of the successes in the space program as well as learning about their working conditions and seeing how far the U.S has come. Today many of the fields and programs are headed by women and not much has changed in terms of who works at NASA the only thing that has changed is that now the diversity there is celebrated.

African American women were not denied their contribution made during the Space Race from the 1930s to the 1960s. These women played an important role and were heavily involved. Unfortunately, they were not acknowledged for it in the public eye thus no one knew about these women however their contributions were not denied, and they are a big part of the success.