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The 'Human Computer' Behind the Moon Landing Was a Black Woman (thedailybeast.com)

Posted by msmash on from the more-power-to-women dept.

Reader bricko writes: The 'Human Computer' Behind the Moon Landing Was a black woman (video). She calculated the trajectory of man's first trip to the moon by hand, and was such an accurate mathematician that John Glenn asked her to double-check NASA's computers. To top it off, she did it all as a black woman in the 1950s and 60s, when women at NASA were not even invited to meetings. And you've probably never heard of her. Meet Katherine Johnson, the African American woman who earned the nickname 'the human computer' at NASA during its space race golden age.

8 of 269 comments (clear)

  1. Computers by rupert.applin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's interesting how quickly what was a job title for someone, became so quickly a term used solely the device. Where in the 1940's a "computer" was someone who did math, then by the 1960's, someone who did the same job as her peers 20 years prior was given that as a nickname. http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/hist...

  2. It always seems kinda racist to me ... by cablepokerface · · Score: 4, Insightful
    ... to write these things as being remarkable. She's black and a woman. Impossibru, she must be as dumb as a door nail!

    I have no doubt they have good intentions writing this, though. But still.

    1. Re:It always seems kinda racist to me ... by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Impossibru, she must be as dumb as a door nail!

      Well yeah, it sounds stupid today. But there was a time when that sentence was "common knowledge".

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    2. Re:It always seems kinda racist to me ... by dissy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... to write these things as being remarkable. She's black and a woman. Impossibru, she must be as dumb as a door nail!

      You should probably read a history book or two before making such a stupid comment.

      Of course it was remarkable in 1940!

      Women we're not given jobs doing anything more than trivial tasks, and black people typically were NOT given jobs by white people at all because actually paying them anything was more than their labor was seen as worth.

      You do realize it wasn't even illegal to discriminate against blacks or women until 1964 right?
      It was perfectly common back then to not hire either women or black people and to outright tell them it was because they were a women or black, and they just had to suck up the injustice of it without any recourse.

      The fact she was both brings down the wrath of two groups of discrimination that ran very strong, and continued to do so for decades beyond that point in time, yet did such amazing mathematical work, should give you a slight idea of the effort and work she had to put into her life and career to even get to that point.

      The fact she had a job what so ever was pretty exceptional, let alone a job typically only given to college graduates, which blacks weren't welcome to attend for the most part, and was again perfectly legal to not allow them to, and as a woman the fact her skills knowledge and ambitions were more than "I want to sew or bring the man of the office coffee" was fairly unheard of.

      Unheard of... as evidenced by the fact you and most people haven't heard of her.

      Also the very fact stories like this are so rare is not an indication of how "behind the times" the author is, but a testament to exactly how rare such a situation was at the time.

      Just because you haven't experienced or witnessed discrimination since the year of your birth to now, doesn't mean it was anything close to how it was in the past.

      Again I can't stress enough, you need to read some history if for no other reason than to learn your limits and not make such authoritative sounding yet factually incorrect stupid statements.

  3. She wasn't the only one by ihtoit · · Score: 5, Informative

    There was a pool of women (and men) at NASA who were ALL referred to as "computers". NASA didn't start using electronic computers for flight dynamics calculations until 1962, and continued to rely on the pool to crosscheck the electronic calculations until 1984.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  4. Re:Link? by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    Use mathematics to debunk supersticians.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. Re:So... by butchersong · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These days it is patronizing but back then I imagine it was fairly remarkable but, maybe not. Looking into this, many of the "computers" back then were women. What I do find slightly offensive is the notion that she was "black". The woman appears more caucasian than african but our society treats anyone with even a smattering of african blood as "black". This strikes me as deeply racist.

  6. It means she’s awesomer than you. by Theovon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually it IS amazing that a person who is BLACK and a WOMAN could get into such an important position back in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Today we recognize it as foolish and stupid to prejudge someone’s abilit to DO MATH (for instance) on the basis of gender or skin color. But back then?

    What this tells us is that she’s fucking awesome, more awesome than you and me. She’s so awesome that people at NASA in an era that only valued white men simply were unable to deny the level of her skill. To break through the prejudice required that she have skill way beyond what a white male would have needed to get into the same job.

    So yeah. Kudos to this woman for her intelligence, skill, and persistence in an era that would have otherwise begrudged her a job as a toilet cleaner.