Chapter 1 BRILLIANT BEGINNING Johnson at the NASA Langley Research Center in 1980 The world Katherine Johnson grew up in did not always honor women who excelled in math especially African American women When Katherine was young women were expected to be homemakers teachers or nurses African
Americans faced discrimination in all areas of life But Katherine was born with a natural gift for numbers Using her talent for math she excelled in school And she broke barriers in a career that put her to work as a brilliant mathematician doing mathematical calculations that would later be done by computers GIRL WITH A GIFT Katherine was born in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia in 1918 Her mother had been a teacher and her father was a farmer and a custodian He had not gone to school beyond the sixth grade But he had a knack for working with numbers When he cut lumber he could calculate the number of boards he could get from a tree just by looking at it He could also solve math problems that Katherine's teachers could not figure out Katherine seemed to have inherited that natural ability As a child she was always counting She counted her steps when she walked to church She counted plates and silverware when she washed dishes after meals When her older siblings Horace Margaret and Charles started school Katherine was left behind but not for long She was allowed into summer school early because she could
