Written by: Snigdha Chaudhary - 30047, Grade V
Posted on: 10 January, 2023
Last month, I read the biography of the great mathematician Katherine Johnson. The book was really inspirational for me.
Katherine Jhonson was an African-American mathematician who worked for NASA. When her parents were married, the government invented a system called segregation, where black people were only allowed in black schools and white people were only allowed in white schools, and the same worked for many other occupations as well. White and black people could only go to colleges, cafes, and shops that were made for their colours. Katherine’s parents, Joylette Coleman and Joshua Coleman, were people who believed that education was the key to success. A few years later, they ended up having four children. They were Horace, Charles, Margaret, and Katherine. Katherine was the youngest in their family. Katherine was very curious about the world and even developed a habit of counting. She would count the plates, forks, and spoons in the kitchen; she would count her siblings' steps as they went from home to school; she would count anything that she could. She was also very envious of her siblings when they went to school before her because she also wanted to go but wasn't the right age. When it was her turn, Katherine had done very well. She skipped 2nd grade, and it soon turned out to be a pattern. Later on, she skipped the fifth grade and many more. In fact, she graduated college at the age of 18. She also got the chance to study next to her siblings. She also loved to ask questions, which was probably her key to success. She was also very fond of math but did not do very well in history. When she was ready for university, university wasn’t ready for her, so she had to wait. She wasn’t very sad about waiting; in fact, she took it as an opportunity to learn more. When it was her turn, her parents enrolled her in a university that was originally for white students but had just opened its doors to black ones. She had gone there with two other students who got chosen for the university and who were black. Although the teachers did not like Katherine at first, they started becoming fond of her after she proved that she was good at studying. They treated her the same as everyone else.They also started making new courses for Katherine. Even Mr. Gus, the principal of the school, supported Katherine's desire to be a mathematician. He walked Katherine home. Along the way, he also showed Katherine some constellations, which grew her love for space. Soon it was time for Katherine to get married. She was married to James. Katherine worked for a school as a teacher, and James worked as a carpenter. The names of their children were Katherine Goble, Constance Goble, and Joylette Goble. One day in the newspaper, she saw a poster that showed African American women a chance to join NASA, which was called NACA back then. She was accepted, but she also realised that the human calculators were only black while the ones with the higher positions were white and men, which was probably because the people back then used to be very sexist and racist. She also made her way through and was considered more than a human calculator. Sixty years after her marriage, her husband died, but the salary from the job was enough for her to raise her family. Soon enough, she married someone else named James, but with another surname. Soon she was given an offer to be a human calculator for a huge project between them and Russia. Even though their Russian group Yuri Gaga was first, they did not give up. You see now that being the human calculator for this job was very hard; one mistake and the whole project would be ruined. The astronaut himself even trusted her to do the calculation more than a computer because computers were very stupid at the time and could easily make mistakes. Their flight was successful, and even though Russia sent the first man into space, NACA sent a whole team into space. Soon, NACA also changed its name to NASA. To be honest, it was very hard for Katherine Jhonson to go through all of the challenges to achieve all of that, but she still did it. She became an African-American mathematician for NASA when segregation was a thing.
She did the impossible and the unthinkable. I feel like her biography or book was very inspirational for a few people going through their own ups and downs.
