Katherine Johnson: A Story Of Being African-American

Janet Fay Collins was the Metropolitan Opera's first African-American Prima Ballerina who broke the color barrier, paving the way for African-American dancers to come after her. Janet was born on March 2nd, 1917 in New Orleans, Louisiana. At the age of four years old she moved with her family to Los Angeles, California. There, she was enrolled into a Catholic Community Center for dance training. Her family did not have money to pay for Janet’s training.

Nella Larson’s novel Passing, tells the story of two African American women Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry who embark on a journey to “reconnect” with one another. Although, similar in appearance, these two women were very different in the way they determined race. For women like Irene and Clare who were physically able to “pass” as white women, despite having African American heritage the typical connotation that race was distinguished by the color of one’s skin did not apply to them. As a result, many women like Irene and Clare would cross the racial lines. The character Clare Kendry was the perfect example of “passing.”

Katherine Johnson was a strong African-American woman who isn’t often talked about. Only within the last two years at the age of 98, does she start getting recognition. A movie was released about her and the women working in the NACA´s branch in 2016. She is the woman who discovered the math that hadn’t yet been created, for launch and landing in the space race. Katherine made these amazing discoveries whilst dealing with constant segregation and oppression for being an African-American Woman.

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She was the first African American woman to sing as a part of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. In those two years of studying with Guiseppe, a contest organized by The New York Philharmonic Society, gave her the opportunity to sing at the Lewisohn Stadium. In 1928, she performed at Carnegie Hall, which soon led to her tour all around Europe. Marian was the first African American singer to be invited to sing for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1939, the singer came across an incident involving the Daughters of American Revolution, who denied her to use their Constitution Hall for a concert, simply because she was African American.

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By age ten, Katherine was already a freshman in high school. Her town didn’t offer classes for African Americans after the eighth grade, therefore her father drove the family one hundred twenty miles to live in Institute, West Virginia, in order for Katherine to attend high school. Katherine then graduated high school at age fourteen and went on to college at West Virginia State

On August 26, 1918 a legend was born, That legend was named Katherine Johnson. Now this African American women did not have an easy life. It all started on when she was ten years old, at that time she was not accepted into a called white sulphur springs because of her race. The school compromised with the young girls parents saying that they would test her and accept her based on her results. Katherine passed with flying colors, and that is how her story began School came easy to Katherine Johnson.

Who is Katherine Johnson? Katherine Johnson is a black mathematician. She was born August 26, 1981, born in White Sulphur Springs, WV. She was born to the parents of Joshua and Joylette Coleman. She is the youngest of four children.

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Only fifteen African Americans have ventured into space, but their journey’s may not have been possible without one woman paving the way. Katherine Johnson is an African American woman that paved the way for many African Americans to come. Katherine Johnson helped Nasa for 33 years, she helped win the space race by making the Apollo 11 land on the moon and back safely. Katherine Johnson should be on a stamp because of her groundbreaking work at NASA, the many awards she’s earned, and her ability to inspire others.

Sometimes good and bad people come into the world, but Katherine Johnson was one of the great people. Katherine Johnson came into this world in 1918 in West Virginia. She was a mathematician and was the best at geometry. She was so smart she was able to graduate high school when she was only 15 and college when she was 18. Her first husband died from brain cancer.

Mary Winston Jackson was an African American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which in 1958 was succeeded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. She became the first black engineer to work for NASA. For nearly two decades she enjoyed a productive engineering career, authoring, or co-authoring a dozen or so research reports, most focused on the behavior of the boundary layer of air around airplanes. She served as the chair of one of the center’s annual United Way campaigns, was a Girl Scout troop leader for more than three decades, and a member of the National Technical Association (the oldest African American technical organization in the United States).

You might not know the day of August 26,1918 (Biography.com) it was a day that changed history forever. Despite racism and segregation, Katherine Johnson was the first African American woman to assist the apollo team at NASA. Johnson overcame obstacles through her life for her to get to such a place. She was a monumental piece of history. To fully understand what she accomplished one must know about her early life, rise to fame, and her greatest legacy.

Katherine Coleman Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia on August 26, 1918. She is the daughter of Joshua and Joylette Coleman, and is the youngest of four children. Her father was a lumberman, farmer and a handyman who worked at the Greenbrier Hotel. Her mother was a former school teacher. Katherine showed talent for math at a very young age, as she was enrolled to high school at the age of 10.