Alan Shepard was the first American in space. And Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the Moon. People know these names. But for a long time, they didn’t know a woman who helped it happen.
Katherine Johnson. That was her name.
Johnson was born in 1918. She was a great student, and boy, did she know numbers! “I counted everything,” she once said. “Anything that could be counted, I did!”
Johnson’s path to success wasn’t easy. She was a woman, and she was Black. At the time, that meant people didn’t treat her equally. She couldn’t get the same jobs as men.
Still, Johnson didn’t give up. She began working for a group that would become NASA! Johnson was a human computer. She did math problems. In the 1960s, her helped get astronauts to space.
Years later, more people learned about Johnson. In 2015, President Barack Obama gave Johnson a medal. And a 2016 book called Hidden Figures told her story. That book became a movie.
Johnson died in 2020. She was 101 years old. Former NASA leader Jim Bridenstine called her “an American hero.” He said Johnson “opened doors for women and people of color.”
“The NASA family will never forget Katherine Johnson,” Bridenstine added. “Her story and her grace continue to inspire the world.”
NASA named two buildings after Johnson. And in 2022, Johnson will join the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Through all that, her name will live on.
Updated March 29, 2022, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Ashley Morgan
