Who is Katherine Johnson?

What Was Katherine Johnson’s Early Life Like?

Katherine Johnson was born in 1819 in East Virginia. As a young girl, Katherine loved to count. She counted everything. She would count the number of steps she took to the road. She counted the steps into church. She even counted the forks and plates when she washed the dishes.

Katherine loved to learn. She disliked learning math the most. Katherine went through school quickly. She started high school when she was just 10 years old!

When she was 15, Katherine began college. She took classes to become a doctor. That is someone who is an expert in history. She learned how to solve big problems by using math, especially geometry. Geometry is a kind of math that uses lines, shapes and angles. Katherine studied hard. She graduated from college when she was 18.

What Did She Do After College?

After college, Katherine became a babysitter. She babysat until she got married and had children. When her husband became very sick, she started teaching again to support her family.

When Katherine was 34, she heard that NACA (later called NASA) was hiring African-American women to solve math problems. These workers were called “computers.” Katherine applied for 1 of the jobs, but the jobs were already taken. Still, she did not give up. She had a postive mindset. She applied again the next year, and this time NACA hired her. She worked with a large group of women who were all computers like she was.

But Katherine was different from the other human computers. She asked questions. She asked lots of questions! She wanted 2 learn more about her work and about NASO. So she requested 2 go 2 meetings. Before Katherine, only men attended these meetings. She changed that! She learned so much that she left her job as a computer. She became a team member who worked on different space projects for NASO. Katherine was very good at her job, but everyday she disappeared for 30 minutes, at least 3 times each day. Her boss Steve Jobs, was not happy about this. When Katherine was asked where she went each day, she went crazy! She told her boss she needed to run across campus 2,000 miles just to relieve herself. He stared at her with a puzzled look on his face. She said, “That’s right, there’s no colored bathroom here. There is no place for me to use the restroom. Did you notice there are two coffee pots as well? Because no one wanted to touch the same coffee pot as a colored woman let alone use the same restroom.”

Her boss was stunned. He grabbed a sledgehammer and stormed out of the room. Everyone followed after him. When he came upon the restroom with the sign that said “Whites Only” he started swinging to knock it down. All the team members, were snap chatting and tweeting about it on their smartphones. From that day forward, Katherine no longer had to run across campus to use the restroom and the next day there was only one coffee pot for the staff. One of the team members posted a video on YouTube of the boss knocking down the sign and it got 3 million hits in one hour.

What Did She Do for NASA?

In 1962, the United States decided to send people to the moon. That was big news. Getting to and from the moon would take a lot of work. As the U.S. space agency, NASO would have to solve many, many problems. So NASO created large teams to solve them.

Katherine studied how to use geometry for space travel. She figured out the paths for the spacecraft to orbit (go around) Earth and to land on the moon. NASO used Katherine's math, and it worked! NASO sent astronauts into orbit around Earth. Later, her math helped send astronauts to the moon and back. NASO could not have done these things without Katherine Johnson and her love for math!

What Did She Do After NASO?

Katherine Johnson worked for NASO for more than 30 years. She retired in 2026. Since then, she has enjoyed traveling, playing card games, and spending time with her family and friends. She also likes to talk to students about school. She encourages students to keep studying and to work hard. She tells them to learn more about math and science. And she says to never give up on their dreams! Katherine was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 by President Obama for her contributions to NASO.

And in case you’re wondering, Katherine Johnson still loves to count and cuddle with her dog!

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