Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson was born on August 16, 1918, in White Sulfur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. His mother Joylette is a teacher, while his father, Joshua, works as a lumberjack. If he practices more manual work, this does not prevent him from using his brain when he cuts wood. Joshua has a gift, he is extremely strong in mental calculation, and can, even before cutting down a tree, calculate the quantity which he will be able to draw from it.
As Katherine begins to study at school, she becomes interested in mathematics and her parents realize that she has inherited her father’s gift. She is so strong in class that she even skips CE2 to go straight to CM2. But at that time, Jim Crow laws are in place. Segregationist laws that limit the rights of African Americans. Young black Americans, for example, must study in schools separated from whites. Which forces Katherine to study very far. But that’s not what will stop his parents. They know she has great potential and are ready to do anything to make her succeed. They therefore move 200 km from their home. From the age of ten, she attended Institute Communal High School in Kanawha County. She continued to excel and graduated from high school when she was only 14 years old.
But how did Katherine Johnson allow NASA to send rockets into space and Neil Armstrong to walk on the moon? If you want to find out, watch the video at the top of this article and discover the whole true story of the “Hidden Figures”.