WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, the late Katherine Johnson was honored with a Congressional Gold Medal at the United States Capitol in Washington D.C.
Johnson, the White Sulpher Springs native and West Virginia State University graduate, was a pioneer for NASA, as she was a beloved research mathematician for the staff for 33 years.
Johnson, who calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 mission in 1961, was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal for her efforts as a part of the group of African American women that were labeled as “human computers.” Johnson, along with Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson, and Christine Darden, helped solve mathematical equations for NASA in the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s. The efforts of the women at NASA inspired a book and movie titled, “Hidden Figures.”
Mike Johnson, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, says these women played a large role in an important time of American history.
“At a time in America when our nation was divided by color, and often by gender, these women dared to step into the fields where they had previously been unwelcomed,” Johnson said Wednesday.
Johnson also says that the four did far more for NASA than most people perceive.
“These women didn’t just crunch numbers and solve equations for the space program, they actually layed the very foundation for upon which our rockets launched and our astronauts flew, and our nation soured,” Johnson said. “Although we call them, ‘hidden figures,’ we shouldn’t think of them merely as supporting characters in the American story of space exploration, they were the engineers and the mathematicians who actually wrote the story itself.”
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito was on hand for the ceremony, and she made it known she was partial to Johnson’s story as a West Virginian. Capito says Johnson had features that made her have a lasting legacy.
“As a West Virginian, Katherine (Johnson) used her toughness and grit to surpass societal barriers and turn her dreams into a reality,” Capito said. “Her legacy will be remembered every single time we look at the moon and remember how her work and their work took us there for the first time.”
Capito, who introduced legislation to rename the NASA IV&V Facility in Fairmont after Johnson, says she would never have been able to compute the legacy her and her team left behind.
“It’s been said that Katherine Johnson counted everything, but today, we’re here to celebrate the one thing even she couldn’t count, and that’s the impact that she and her colleagues have had on the lives of students, teachers, and explorers,” Capito said.
Capito also says that Johnson, who calculated the trajectories of the Apollo and Mercury missions for NASA, will no longer be overshadowed.
“Katherine’s work is no longer hidden by the shadows of the men she put on the moon, and I am so excited about that Artemis journey for our first woman, and she will ever be a star across the Mountain State and the country,” Capito said.
Johnson’s medal was presented to her daughters, Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore.