![]() He listened to her story, sympathized, and asked Mary to come work for him instead of returning to West Computing. Although he was a total stranger to her, Mary shared her frustration about the bathroom incident with Kaz. But still, absurdly, she was unable to perform her bodily functions in the same bathroom as her white colleagues.Īs she was reeling from that encounter, Mary Jackson’s NASA prospects improved, however, when she ran into Kazimierz “Kaz” Czarnecki, a white engineer who was an assistant section head working on Langley’s Supersonic Pressure Tunnel (SPT). The white girls simply laughed at her-Mary was black, so how could they possibly know where her bathroom was? The ugly specter of Jim Crow hurt all the more because it was at Langley, where Mary was supposed to be an equal, working with her colleagues to help her country. Once, when she was sent by Dorothy Vaughan on an assignment to the predominantly white East Side, she asked the white computers where she could find the bathroom. But the sting of discrimination that she’d known so well growing up in Virginia still followed her to Langley. Mary Jackson’s Contributions: Supersonic Pressure Tunnelīut what did Mary Jackson do at NASA? Mary Jackson, NASA mathematician, was a full-fledged Civil Service employee. Mary Jackson, NASA employee, became a reality. After just three months at Fort Monroe, the federal government transferred Mary to Langley, where she began working for Dorothy Vaughan. Her mathematical abilities quickly became obvious to her superiors, and with the Korean War heating up, there was an urgent need for more skilled computers at NACA. Mary was working as a clerk typist at Fort Monroe in 1951. Mary also became deeply involved in her local Girl Scout troop, where she committed herself to helping young African-American women make the most of themselves-with a special focus on helping them prepare for college careers. After graduating, she married and started a family. She completed a double major in mathematics and physical science. With these founding principles, most women at Hampton studied home economics, but Mary was different. She graduated from high school in 1938, after which she had enrolled at Hampton Institute, an all-black college founded on the idea of self-help and practical and industrial training. Whereas so many of her predecessors had been “come-heres,” transplants from other parts of the country, Mary was a “been-here:” she’d grown up in Hampton Roads and had deep roots in that part of Virginia. In 1951, a new 26-year-old hire named Mary Jackson made her way to West Computing. Mary Jackson, Hidden Figures Main Character and NASA Engineer Learn more about Mary Jackson’s contributions and career. Native to the Hampton Roads area, where Langley Research Center was located, Jackson broke barriers by becoming NASA’s first black female engineer.īut what did Mary Jackson do at NASA? For Mary Jackson, NASA was a dream job and a challenge. ![]() Mary Jackson was an American aerospace engineer who worked for NACA (before it became NASA) in 1951. Who is Mary Jackson in Hidden Figures, and what were her contributions to NASA? Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading. “ appropriately sits on ‘Hidden Figures Way,’ a reminder that Mary is one of many incredible and talented professionals in NASA’s history who contributed to this agency’s success," Bridenstine said in a press statement.This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly. The book was adapted into the 2016 Academy Award-nominated film of the same name. Margot Lee Shetterly's 2016 book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race celebrated the pioneering work of Jackson as well as her colleagues, the mathematicians Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan. Jackson, by naming the facility after her. On Wednesday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the agency will pay tribute to its first Black female engineer, Mary W. NASA's Washington, D.C., headquarters is getting a brand-new name. Jackson's work, along with contributions by Dorothy Vaughan and Katherine Johnson, was celebrated in Margot Lee Shetterly's 2016 book Hidden Figures, as well as the 2016 film of the same name.Jackson was NASA's first Black female engineer.NASA announced Wednesday it would rename its Washington, D.C.
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