U.S. Capitol Police honor guards place Congressional Gold Medals to be presented at a ceremony to honor the Black women mathematicians of NASA who contributed to the space race and who were the subject of the movie “Hidden Figures” at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
NEW YORK — The hidden figures of the space race were recognized with Congress’ highest honor at a medal ceremony on Wednesday.
The Congressional Gold Medal was presented to the families of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Christine Darden at the U.S. Capitol. Darden watched the ceremony from her Connecticut home.
A medal was also given to all the women who worked as mathematicians, engineers and “human computers” in the U.S. space program from the 1930s to 1970s.
“By honoring them, we honor the very best of our country’s spirit,” said author Margot Lee Shetterly, whose book “Hidden Figures” was adapted into a film in 2016.
This photo provided by NASA shows mathematician Katherine Johnson in 1966. (NASA via AP)
This photo provided by NASA shows engineer Mary W. Jackson at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., in 1977. (Robert Nye, NASA via AP)
This undated photo provided by NASA shows Dorothy J. Vaughan. (NASA via AP)
NASA engineer Christine Darden, who was one of the “human computers” employed by NASA during the space race, attends a Senate subcommittee panel on NASA exploration on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Tuesday, July 9, 2019. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics — a precursor to NASA — hired hundreds of women to crunch numbers for space missions. The Black women hired worked in a segregated unit of female mathematicians at what is now NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia.
Johnson’s hand-written calculations helped John Glenn become the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 – the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Vaughan rose to become NASA’s first Black supervisor, and Jackson was NASA’s first Black female engineer. Darden is best known for her sonic boom research.
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