Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson: A Biography

By Kate Wilkinson-Brindle
Illustrated by Amy Robinson

An Exceptional Child

Katherine Coleman was born on the 26th August 1918 in the town of White
Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, USA. Katherine’s mother was a teacher, and
her father was a farmer. Young Katherine had a remarkable gift for numbers;
she absolutely LOVED maths!
In White Sulphur Springs at that time, the
schools were segregated, and African
American children were not offered
education after Year 8. To overcome this,
Katherine’s family moved to Institute, West
Virginia where Katherine could attend high
school and university. Katherine achieved degrees
in maths and French by the time she was 18.

A Human Computer

In 1939, Katherine married James Goble, and they had three daughters

together. While her children were young, Katherine worked as a teacher. In

1953, Katherine accepted a job at the

National Advisory Committee for

Aeronautics (NACA). Her job was to be a

‘computer’ in the West Area Computing

Unit. This unit was a team of African

American women who did complicated

calculations for the engineering

department. Katherine had found a use KKaatthheerriinnee aatt wwoorrkk
for her extraordinary mathematical skills.

However, she didn’t just do her calculations; Katherine asked questions and was

assertive in meetings.

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Overcoming Barriers

Sadly, in 1956, Katherine’s husband
died. Katherine continued to work hard to
provide for her three girls. Meanwhile, at
NACA, Katherine and the other African
American women were supposed to eat in a
different area in the cafeteria from the white employees.
They also had to use different toilets that were far away from
their desks. This sort of discrimination was common at the
time. Katherine started to ignore the rules around segregation.
She just wanted to concentrate on her job. Katherine’s
father’s advice helped her to be strong. He told her,
“You’re no better than anyone else, but no-one is better than you.”

Space Task Group

In 1958, NACA became the National Aeronautics PPaararabboolilcicSSppaacecflefligighht tPProrofifilele MMisissisoionnElEalappsesdedTiTmimee(m(minin) )
and Space Administration (NASA). Katherine 110000,0,00000

was part of a team called the Space Task Group. 8800,0,00000

It was an exciting time to work at NASA as

America prepared for space travel. Katherine 6600,0,00000

became the first woman at NASA to be named 111100.9.900 111111.8.800 111122.7.700 111133.6.600

as the co-author of a report. She calculated the KKaatthheerriinnee mmaayy hhaavvee uusseedd ggrraapphhss
curve that a spacecraft would take from lift off lliikkee tthhiiss iinn hheerr ccaallccuullaattiioonnss..
to landing – this is called a parabola. She said,

“You tell me where you want it to land, and I’ll work backwards and tell

you where to set off.”

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Apollo 11

In 1959, Katherine married a man called James Johnson. Throughout the
1960s, she continued to work calculating flight paths for space travel. One
astronaut, John Glenn, refused to leave on
his mission to orbit Earth unless Katherine
had personally checked every calculation!
She was diligent, reliable and trusted.
In 1969, Katherine was part of the team that
worked out when and where to launch the
Apollo 11 rocket that took the first humans
to the moon. More importantly, those
calculations also brought the astronauts
safely back to Earth!

Katherine’s Legacy

Sadly, Katherine Johnson died on the 24th of February 2020. She was
101 years old. An inspirational role-model, Katherine spent years encouraging
students to follow careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
The experiences of Katherine and her friends at NASA were made into a powerful
film called ‘Hidden Figures’. This film celebrates the incredible achievements of
these gifted mathematicians.
Today at NASA, the ‘Katherine G Johnson Computational Research Facility’ is
named in her honour.

“I’m always interested in
learning something new.
Ask questions! Be curious!”

by Questions lbq.org/search

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