Katherine says the driver said “All you colored folk, come over here.” But she would not move until he asked her politely. All of the white passengers were allowed on the bus, but the Blacks were put into taxis. She says when they crossed from West Virginia into Virginia, the bus stopped and all of the Black people had to move to the back, which Katherine did. On the bus ride to this first assignment (in Marion, VA), Katherine says she had her first experience with racism. Her first job was at an elementary school where she responded to a telegram that said if she could teach math and French, and play the piano, the job was hers. In 1937, the teenager graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in French and mathematics.įollowing in her mother’s footsteps, Katherine began teaching in rural Virginia and West Virginia schools. Katherine earned a full scholarship that included tuition, room and board. Maybe some people had a problem with it, but it was no problem for me,” she said. “I was the fresh kid in the freshman class and was treated no differently than anyone else. “I grew up across the street from the college and knew everyone on campus,” said Katherine. At fourteen Katherine transitioned easily from West Virginia State High to the associated West Virginia State College. Claytor told Katherine she would make a good research mathematician, she took the dream to heart. Claytor added special courses in advanced math including one in analytic geometry in which Katherine was the only pupil. in Mathematics, found a protégé in Katherine. (William Waldron) Schiefflin Claytor, the third African American to earn a Ph.D. In her sophomore year, a young professor from Michigan, W.W. Gus, who pointed out the stars in the constellations and inspired Katherine’s interest in astronomy. She often walked home in the evenings with the school principal, Sherman H. The faculty quickly recognized her insatiable thirst for knowledge. To divide the work more equitably between the teachers, they took the “best” fifth graders and put them into sixth grade, which, according to Katherine, is how she skipped fifth grade as well (putting her a grade-level above her older brother.) As a result, Katherine started high school at the age of ten. Then, when Katherine was supposed to enter fifth grade, they opened a brand new school with three teachers. According to Katherine, when she officially started school, she went straight into the second grade, just before she turned six-years-old. The teacher was so impressed that Katherine could read, she was allowed to attend summer school. At a very young age, she started following her brother to school, a two-room school house. Katherine proved to be a talented pupil in more than math. Coleman worked in White Sulphur Springs, while his wife and children resided near the school in Institute, West Virginia. In 1929, the school was renamed West Virginia State College, and later it was renamed West Virginia State University. Katherine’s high school was part of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute (formerly the West Virginia Colored Institute). Since the local schools only offered classes to African Americans through the eighth grade, he enrolled his children in a school that was 125 miles away from their home. Though her father had quit school after the sixth grade, he considered education of paramount importance for Katherine and her older siblings Charles, Margaret and Horace. He could look at a tree and tell how many boards he could get out of it.” One of Katherine’s favorite stories explains how her father could figure out arithmetic problems that confounded some of her teachers. I counted the plates that I washed.” And, “I knew how many steps there were from our house to church.” Katherine believes she inherited her gift for numbers from her father. At a very young age, Katherine, who was the youngest of four, showed signs of being a math prodigy. Her mother, Joylette, was a former teacher and her father, Joshua, a farmer who worked extra jobs as a janitor. Katherine Coleman was born on Augin White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Both her father’s determined effort to send his children to school and her own resolution to pursue her dreams overcame race and gender discrimination and led to an extraordinary life of personal fulfillment and professional achievements. But her career might never have gotten off the ground if not for perseverance. She also helped develop space navigation systems to guide the astronauts. She is a research mathematician and physicist who calculated trajectories and orbits for historic missions including the first flight to put a man on the moon. Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson is a pioneer of the American space movement.
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