House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., center, presents a Congressional Gold Medal posthumously honoring NASA mathematician Mary Jackson to her granddaughters KaShawnta Lee, left, and Wanda Jackson, joined at right by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., at a celebration of the Black women of NASA who contributed to the space race and who were the subject of the book and movie "Hidden Figures," at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Republished September 18, 2024 - 3:57 PM
Original Publication Date September 18, 2024 - 1:11 PM
NEW YORK (AP) — 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.
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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