[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2403-2404]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 TRIBUTE TO KATHERINE JOHNSON AND REMEMBERING MARY JACKSON AND DOROTHY 
                                VAUGHAN

  Mr. WARNER. Madam President, in honor of African-American History 
Month and in support of efforts to promote education and training in 
21st century careers involving science, technology, engineering, and 
mathematics, I want to bring the attention of this body to the stories 
of three remarkable African-American women. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy 
Vaughan, and Mary Jackson broke through barriers of gender and race as 
trailblazers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, more 
than a half century ago. Together with my colleagues Senator Tim Kaine 
and Congressman Bobby Scott, we honor these women.

[[Page 2404]]

  Before John Glenn orbited Earth or Alan Shepherd walked on the Moon, 
several hundred female mathematicians used pencil and paper, slide 
rules, and adding machines to perform the complex equations which 
launched America's journey into space. Among these ``human computers,'' 
as they were known, were Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary 
Jackson--three women who have become symbols for many other women, many 
of them women of color, who worked at NASA Langley's West Area 
Computing Group complex and helped America dominate space and 
aeronautics research.
  Virginia author Margot Lee Shetterly grew up surrounded by this 
little-known history, much of it relayed by her father, who also was an 
internationally recognized scientist with NASA's Langley Research 
Center. And Shetterly masterfully tells the story in her book ``Hidden 
Figures'', which currently is an Academy Award nominated motion picture 
of the same name.
  Mr. KAINE. Madam President, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and 
Mary Jackson shared a combined 95 years of experience in the field of 
aeronautics and space exploration. Katherine Johnson worked as an 
aerospace technologist from 1953 until she retired in 1986. Dorothy 
Vaughan worked as a mathematician and programmer from 1943 until her 
retirement in 1971. Mary Jackson also worked as a computer and an 
engineer from 1951 until her retirement in 1985. Over the course of 
their careers at NASA, Johnson, Vaughan, and Jackson coauthored more 
than three dozen scientific papers.
  In her role as a ``computer,'' Katherine Johnson calculated the 
trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Even after 
NASA began calculating trajectories with electronic computers, John 
Glenn personally requested that Johnson recheck those calculations 
before the Friendship Seven flight in which he became the first 
American to orbit the Earth. ``If she says they're good, then I'm ready 
to go,'' Glenn said during the preflight check, and once he got the 
word from Katherine Johnson, Friendship Seven roared off a launch pad 
and into American history. Katharine Jackson later would play key roles 
in the success of America's Apollo and space shuttle programs.
  Dorothy Vaughan left her job as a math teacher at Prince Edward 
County, Virginia's segregated Moton High School in 1943 for what she 
thought would be a temporary job with the agency that would later 
become NASA. Vaughan became NASA's first African-American manager in 
1949 and the first African-American supervisor at the fledgling space 
agency. When NASA transitioned to electronic computing, Vaughan 
transitioned with it, becoming an expert FORTRAN programmer and 
training others within her department on the early computer programming 
language.
  Mary Jackson was first hired at NASA by Dorothy Vaughan, and after 2 
years in the segregated computing pool, she was provided an opportunity 
to work with internationally recognized engineers in Langley's wind 
tunnels. That exposure led to her interest in engineering, and she 
successfully petitioned Hampton City Council for permission to enroll 
in graduate level coursework offered only at night and only at the 
then-segregated Hampton High School. Not only did she successfully 
complete the coursework, Mary Jackson became NASA's first Black female 
engineer in 1958. Twenty years later, she would cap her career by 
working to further improve hiring and promotion opportunities for women 
across the entire space agency.
  Mr. WARNER. Thanks to Margot Lee Shetterly's book and the popularity 
of the film, these hidden figures are hidden no longer. And the stories 
of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson reflect 
America's story: the powerful combination of individual drive and 
accomplishment and the certain knowledge that America is at its very 
best when we are inclusive and welcome everyone's contributions of 
capability and talent.
  The stories of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson 
also provide compelling testimony to support our bipartisan efforts to 
promote education and training in the STEM disciplines: science, 
technology, engineering, and mathematics. Those are the disciplines 
which will continue to provide the opportunities of the future, and 
these are the disciplines where we must do a much better job of 
recruiting and retaining young women, especially girls of Color.
  It is an honor to place in the record of this body the stories of 
these exceptionally talented individuals. They were among the brightest 
minds of their generation, and their intellect and their collective 
body of work helped change America's future.

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