On Being a Black Female Math Whiz During the Space Race; New York Times, 9/5/16

Cara Buckley, New York Times; On Being a Black Female Math Whiz During the Space Race:

"Christine Darden, now 73 and retired, had worked her way out of NASA’s computing pool to lead engineering research into sonic booms. Katherine Johnson, who recently turned 98, lives in a retirement home with her husband of 57 years, James A. Johnson, and is enjoying a recent surge of fame. She calculated rocket trajectories for the Mercury and Apollo missions, and last year President Obama personally awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her life’s work."

How history forgot the black women behind Nasa’s space race; Guardian, 9/5/16

Emine Saner, Guardian; How history forgot the black women behind Nasa’s space race:

"In 1940, [Margot Lee Shetterly] points out in her book, Hidden Figures, just 2% of black women got a university degree and more than half became teachers. But a few defied all expectations and obstacles and joined Naca (the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which would become Nasa). Their work underpinned some of the biggest advances in aeronautics, during some of the most defining moments of the 20th century – the second world war, the cold war, the space race, the civil rights movement, and the adoption of electronic computing.

While some of this generation of female black scientists were recognised – in 2015, Katherine Johnson was awarded the US’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential medal of freedom for her work, which included calculations that helped the moon landing – the fact that there was a crack team of all-female, all-black maths whizzes is largely unknown."