Reaching For the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson

When Katherine Coleman was four-years-old she had a mission: to help her older brother Charlie with his math. Six-year-old Charlie was struggling to understand numbers, so Katherine decided to sit with him in class and help him! Charlie attended Mary McLeod Bethune Grade School where the Colored students of White Sulphur Springs were sent. His teacher, Mrs. Rosa Leftwich quickly realized that Katherine was indeed helping Charlie. Mrs. Leftwich eventually started a kindergarten class which Katherine attended and after that began school in the fall in second grade, a year ahead of Charlie. Katherine would eventually skip fifth grade. Her siblings, Horace and Margaret remained ahead of her in school. 

Before Katherine's family lived in White Sulphur Springs, her father owned a very large farm and log farmhouse in Oakhurst, which was located close by.  Their farm was called Dutch Run. Katherine's father had only a sixth-grade education but he was an industrious man. Katherine believes that a white man must have purchased the land their house in White Sulphur Springs was built on, as Colored people could  not buy land at that time. Education was very important to Katherine's father, which was why he moved the family into town.

In 1926, the Coleman family moved to Institute, West Virginia so the children could attend the West Virginia Colored Institute. When Katherine's father was unable to find employment he was forced to move back to White Sulphur Springs where he would live apart from his family for the next eight years, until all four Coleman children had graduated college. His family would visit during summers and holidays. 

Katherine entered high school at age ten and did well, often acing courses. During the 1920's Katherine and her siblings all worked at the Greenbrier Hotel, built at the local thermal springs. The hotel catered to wealthy white clients, although some amenities were available to the Colored population later in the evening. Horace, Charlie and Mr. Coleman worked as bellmen, while Margaret and Katherine worked in the valet shop, unpacking guest's trunks and pressing their clothes.

In 1932, Katherine graduated from high school and entered college. Because she had the opportunity to practice her French with the chef at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, Katherine thought she might like to major in French. However, Dr. William W. Schieffelin Claytor, head of the mathematics department urged her to reconsider. Katherine decided to major in both French and math. He also encouraged Katherine to become a research mathematician, and to that end he developed classes just for her, including a class about the geometry of outer space.

Katherine graduated from the Institute which was now called West Virginia State College, in 1937 with degrees in mathematics and French, summa cum laude. She graduated ahead of her brothers, Horace and Charlie, both of whom she thought were "slow learners". They were most definitely not!

Katherine then went on to teach math and music at Carnegie Elementary School in Marion, Virginia. Public schools at this time were racially segregated. "White Virginians thought that if Colored people became educated, they would challenge the existing social order, which was rooted in White supremacy - the belief that White people were genetically superior to non-White people, including Colored people." Marion, Virginia was predominantly white and Katherine knew that "the threat of violence was never far off." It was in Marion that Katherine met Jimmie Gobles, a tall graduate from Lincoln University in Missouri.  Katherine and Jimmie were married November 9, 1939.

Very soon after, during the summer of  1940, Katherine moved to Morgantown where she would begin graduate school at West Virginia University. Katherine was one of three Colored students chosen to integrate the school. However, Katherine didn't return to West Virginia University in the fall but instead returned to teaching with Jimmie at Carnegie Elementary. 

In December 1940, Katherine had the first of three daughters, named Joylette. Constance was born in April, 1943, and Katherine (Kathy) was born in April, 1944. Katherine and Jimmie moved to Bluefield, Virginia in 1947, where they both taught at Tazewell County  School. After losing their house in a fire, Katherine and Jimmie moved to the Newport News-Hampton Roads area. Katherine's sister Margaret and her husband had told Katherine about a secret government project on the Virginia peninsula where Colored women were working as "computers".  While Jimmie got a job as a painter at the Newport News shipyard, Katherine decided to try for a position as a mathematician at NACA (the forerunner of NASA). Eventually, Katherine was offered a job as a computer at NACA. It would be the beginning of a stellar career in the space industry, where she would have a profound impact on the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle missions, and blaze a trail for women in science and engineering, especially African-American women.

Discussion

Reaching For The Moon is the inspiring story of Katherine Johnson, an African-American woman mathematician who led an extraordinary life. Johnson wrote her story in the hopes of inspiring young people to "reach for the moon in their own lives", no matter their circumstances. For Katherine Johnson, those circumstances were systemic discrimination based on race and gender.

As a young Black girl, growing up in racially segregated America during the 1920's and 1930's, Katherine experienced many serious challenges. Racial segregation and systemic racism meant fewer opportunities for African-Americans who struggled to obtain an education. When her father was born, about half of African Americans were unable to read. Katherine explains why White Americans were against educating Blacks and how the difficulty in obtaining an education made her father highly value an education.

Katherine writes how "...Colored people strove to educate themselves - organizing, creating self-help groups, running for office, fighting to change laws, founding schools, and so on."  Katherine's parents valued a good education so much they sacrificed to ensure their children were able to attend schools. Katherine notes of her father, "Because his own education had been prohibited, his children's was extremely important to him....Like many other Colored people of that era, he saw education as the pathway his children could follow to escape indignities and dangers, large and small." Repeatedly her father moved his family near good schools and even endured years of separation from his family, so that his daughters could receive a good education.

Katherine traces her own path through the years of the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and the Space Race of the 1960's, set against the backdrop of the struggle by African-Americans for racial equality, desegregation, the right to vote, and the right to an education. She describes how schools for Black children were often deprived of funding, and the teachers poorly paid but how this situation also resulted in highly qualified teachers and well-educated Black students who went on to make significant contributions to America.

In Reaching For The Moon, Katherine describes the contributions she was most proud of at NACA and its successor, NASA. She attributes her success to her unprecedented habit of  asking questions of NASA engineers, so she could understand their thinking. This was to ensure her calculations were correct. It was something the other "computers" had never done, because it was expected that the women computers would not question the men engineers. "Having enough information to do my work accurately was essential; so I just ignored the social customs that told me to stay in my place. I would keep asking questions until I was satisfied with the results...Quietly the quality of my contribution began to outweigh the arbitrary laws of racial segregation and the dictates that held back my gender."

It is evident from Reaching For The Moon, that Katherine Johnson was a very gifted mathematician whose contributions were significant in both the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. But she was also a woman of determination, perseverance and courage.  Her life was not without tragedy, as she lost her beloved first husband, Jimmie Gobles in 1956 when she was thirty-eight years old. Katherine passed away in February of 2020 at the age of one hundred and one.

In Reaching For The Moon, Katherine repeatedly mentions the advice her father gave her, "You are no better than anyone else, but nobody else is better than you." It was advice she would remember all her life, giving her the self-confidence in a world that saw her as unequal. Katherine Johnson's autobiography is a must-read for girls and teens of all backgrounds, but especially those from marginalized communities and those contemplating a career in science. 

Book Details:

Reaching For The Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson

New York: Atheneum Books For Young Readers   2019
248 pp.

One Step Further by Katherine Johnson

In One Step Further: My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission, Katherine Johnson, famed human computer who helped with the space race, and her daughters tell their story and how her life influenced them.

Katherine Johnson loved numbers as a child. This love she passed on to her daughters, Joylette, Connie and Kathy. At this time she was married to Jimmie Coleman. In her own home, math and music were prominent. They went to Sunday school and regular school.

During the time that Katherine's children attended school, Jim Crow laws were in effect. This meant that black people had to be kept separate from white people. Often the segregated facilities were not as nice as those for white people. Although life was hard, the three sisters were protected by the community they lived in.

Katherine had graduated summa cum from West Virginia State college, earning here degree in math. She found work as a teacher but it was considered a dangerous job for a black woman due to discrimination. Many did not want Black children to be educated. So Katherine and Jimmie moved their family to a new place. But even in their new home, Katherine's daughters still experienced segregation. 

Then Katherine got a new job at the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics as a human computer. Instead of computers, humans would make the calculations that engineers relied on to help planes fly farther and faster. So every morning, Katherine dressed in her pearls and a good skirt and jacket, went to work with many other college-educated African-American women who worked as mathematicians. Katherine's daughters found role models in these women.

Because white people felt that African Americans were not as smart, Katherine felt that they had to look and be perfect. Like the society they lived in, her workplace was also segregated.

Unlike most of the other computers, Katherine wanted to know the why of the math and how it was being used. After pressuring to attend meetings, Katherine was allowed to go. At this time NACA was renamed NASA and it's mission was to send humans into space. This work was top secret so she couldn't talk about it at home either. At night Katherine would talk to her daughters about the stars, pointing out the Big Dipper and Orion's Belt.

As her children grew up they became involved in the fight for equality. Her daughter Kathy attending college peacefully protested to end racial segregation. 

John Glenn Jr. was chosen to be the first American to fly into space. To help with the space race, NASA began to use machine computers. While these machines were faster than the human computers, were they just as accurate. John Glenn wasn't so sure and he would not fly until the machine calculations were checked by Katherine! She also helped with the calculations that were needed to send man to the moon. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins blasted into space on their way to the moon.

Katherine's daughters did go one step further inspired by their mathematician mother: Joylette worked at NASA, while both Kathy and Connie became teachers. Katherine retired from NASA in 1986.In 2018, NASA named an entire facility after Katherine Johnson.

Discussion

This engaging picture book tells the story of Katherine Johnson, human computer and mathematician extraordinaire. One Step Further not only tells Katherine's remarkable story but focuses on how her life and accomplishments encouraged her own daughters to go "one step further". It is a story of a brilliant, determined African-American woman who overcame  several social obstacles to become a major force in the race to put a man on the moon. Despite the obvious obstacles racial segregation presented, Katherine also had to confront sexual discrimination in the workplace. One Step Further portrays Katherine as a woman who did not back down. In this way, Katherine is presented as a good role model for women and especially women of colour to confront and break down barriers.

And Katherine's daughters were able to go "one step further" due to changes brought about by the civil rights movement and their own determined efforts. Joylette Goble Hylikc received a Masters of Science in Management Information Systems and worked at NASA before working at Lockheed Martin as a senior requirements engineer. Katherine Goble Moore also received a masters from Montclair State University and worked as an educator for thirty-three years. Connie Goble Boykin Garcia passed away in 2010. She also worked as a teacher after completing a bachelor's degree from Hampton Institute/University.

Accompanying the text, are many interesting photographs of Katherine and her children, as well as historic photos of racial segregation, protests against segregation  Katherine working at NASA, John Glenn Jr. and Buzz Aldrin. The photographs of racial segregation are important as they show younger readers what living under Jim Crow laws was like for Katherine and her family and other African-Americans.

Illustrator Charnelle Pinkney Barlow, granddaughter of Caldecott-winning illustrator Jerry Pinkney, wanted to portray both Katherine, John Glenn Jr. and Buzz Aldrin in a way that fit with the photographs included, adding a layer of context to the story.

The back matter includes detailed Historical Notes & Context: Racial Segregation in the United States and About Katherine Johnson, as well as a Timeline and a Glossary. 

A very well-done children's biography about an amazing woman, whose contributions to space science were considerable and long overdue in being recognized.

Book Details:

One Step Further: My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission by Katherine Johnson
Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Kids    2021