Feb. 27, 2021 – On Friday, Feb. 26, 2021, NASA held a naming ceremony to dedicate its Washington D.C. headquarters in honor of Mary W. Jackson, a human computer (mathematician) featured in the popular Hidden Figures book and movie. Jackson was NASA’s first African American female engineer.
“The recognition we celebrate today is appropriate because Mary Jackson remains an inspiration,” Clayton Turner, Langley Research Center director, said in a Feb. 27, 2021 press release. “Her perseverance, her empathy, her desire to lift us all – she inspired others to excel and to break through barriers. That is the spirit of NASA. Mary Jackson chose to lead by example and at NASA today we strive to emulate her vision, passion, and commitment.”
2016 NASA Video with Hidden Figures actresses
Mary began her career as a mathematician with NACA in 1951 in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of NACA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
NACA became NASA in 1958. NACA was the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. Orville Wright was a member. NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
After two years, Mary was asked to help with wind tunnel studies. After working with Mary, Kazcmierz Czarnecki, her supervisor, suggested she take additional classes to become an engineer.
Classes were offered by the University of Virginia at Hampton High School but the school did not allow Blacks to attend classes. Mary filed a petition with the city of Hampton and it was granted. In 1958, she became the first African American female engineer at NASA.
During a 2018 visit to the Hampton History Museum in Hampton, Virginia, this author toured the Hidden Figures exhibit. Original copies of a few of Mary’s research papers were on display. In addition, a machine calculator used by mathematicians in the 1950s was on display. NASA’s human computers used these machines but also did hundreds of calculations by hand with pencil and paper only.
In 1962 as John Glenn (1921-2016), NASA astronaut, prepared for his Friendship 7 mission (Feb. 20, 1962), mechanical computers were performing some of the calculations for the space capsule’s trajectory. The mission’s goal was to have Glenn be the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. Glenn asked for Katherine Johnson, a Black human computer, to check the math by hand one more time to confirm the mecahnical computer was correct. It took her a few days but she reported that yes, the mechanical computer had the correct calculations. The event is a scene in the Hidden Figures movie.
In 2017, the Langley Research Center named a new building after Katherine Johnson. It’s the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility.
June 2020 announcement
On June 24, 2020, NASA announced it would be naming its headquarters in honor of Mary Jackson.
“Mary W. Jackson was part of a group of very important women who helped NASA succeed in getting American astronauts into space. Mary never accepted the status quo, she helped break barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and women in the field of engineering and technology,” James Bridenstine said on June 24, 2020 when, as NASA’s administrator at the time, he announced its headquarters would be named after Jackson. “Today, we proudly announce the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building. It appropriately sits on ‘Hidden Figures Way,’ a reminder that Mary is one of many incredible and talented professionals in NASA’s history who contributed to this agency’s success. Hidden no more, we will continue to recognize the contributions of women, African Americans, and people of all backgrounds who have made NASA’s successful history of exploration possible.”
Mary went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers, according to NASA. In 2019, she posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal.
The work of Jackson and others in the West Area Computing Unit gained national attention in the 2016 Margot Lee Shetterly book, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race. The book was made into a popular movie that same year. Award-winning actress Janelle Monae portrayed Jackson.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What was NACA?
2.What is NASA?
3. When was NASA formed?
4. What were “human computers” in the 1950s when Mary began working at the Langley Research Center?
5. What did Mary have to do to take college classes in engineering at Hapton High School?
6. What mechanical device did human computers use at Langley?
INQUIRY QUESTIONS
1. How was the story of African American human computers at Langley finally told?
2. What is the legacy of the African American human computers who worked at NACA/NASA begining in the 1940s?
3. How did Mary Jackson pave the way for younger generations of African American women?