by cofty 7 Replies latest social current
Katherine Johnson passed away today aged 101. She was the subject of the excellent movie Hidden Figures that told the story of her amazing work as a mathematician calculating trajectories for space flights.
'Ms. Johnson helped our nation enlarge the frontiers of space even as she made huge strides that also opened doors for women and people of color in the universal human quest to explore space.' - NASA
Great human being and a great movie. RIP Katherine Johnson. Still Totally ADD
R.I.P. Katherine Johnson ,I hope she had all of her faculty`s about her and to see her achievements with the other ladies on screen in that marvellous movie.
And it was still a time when she and others were classed as 2nd class citizen and she still gave her all.
I saw the movie Hidden Figures and loved it. The women got very little credit for their extremely valuable contribution to such a historic event!
just saying!
I fell into this movie. Wasn't looking for it but it found me.
Here's an excellent preview that will show you:
Katherine Johnson
The film gave me a new idea of how segregation even up to the 1950s influenced daily life of women. How hard it was for the african-american population to get higher education or a better job. In regards to NASA: "Black women at first used separate office, dining and bathroom facilities, but their abilities won them a level of acceptance ay NASA that was ahead of its time in the US." AFP
Interesting to see, how in the NASA offices women worked on tasks like calculating manually the space trips before IBM computers functioned. But even after the computers were able to calculate faster austronauts relied on her math gift and let her manually check the coordinates e.g. of the landing site . "Along with colleagues, she plotted John Glenn's course when he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. Before embarking on the mission, Glenn asked that Johnson personally re-check the computer-produced figures on a mechanical calculating machine -- a task that took one and a half days of intense work." AFP
In the film also includes a scene at 56:15 when she appealed at court after she was rejected to study at a white school in Hampton. There was never before a afro-american at a white school before in Virgina. In the film she was very well prepared when she spoke to the judge. She argued that the only choice for her to become engineer at NASA is to get this studies at the white Hampton High School.
To the question "Why should a coloured woman study at a white school, which had not happened before?" she answered: that "she had no other choice than to be the first to become an engineer at NASA" and she asked the judge: "in hundred years, which case will yet be remembered of all cases he has today, which case will make him the FIRST?" Nice moment. The judge answered: "O my god. ......only the evening courses".
This scene is a hint to here role in the legal desegregating of higher education. More. More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/25/katherine-johnson-should-also-be-remembered-desegregating-higher-education/
"Black women at first used separate office, dining and bathroom facilities, but their abilities won them a level of acceptance ay NASA that was ahead of its time in the US."
In the film also includes a scene at 56:15 when she appealed at court after she was rejected to study at a white school in Hampton. There was never before a afro-american at a white school before in Virgina. In the film she was very well prepared when she spoke to the judge. She argued that the only choice for her to become engineer at NASA is to get this studies at the white Hampton High School.
It's important to remember that segregation was something imposed on people by the local democrat-controlled governments, not a natural evolved situation. Left to their own devices, most companies would do what benefitted them the most, which would mean using the best people for the job. This is what NASA was doing.
Anyone that imagines "let the government ..." is a good solution to any problem needs to read more history to understand that this is rarely the case. Government control of anything usually boils down to allowing a minority of special-interest people to run the show and it inevitably becomes a shit-show as a result.
Very true simon but segregation was supported by both parties then later on the Democrat under the leadership of president Johnson voted in laws that help to end many of those decimations. After that many of the southern Democrats change parties and became Republican because they thought president Johnson betrayed them.
Besides this thread was to honor a great scientist not throw in how bad us Democrats are. Which we are not. I ask this before, Why are you so insistent in dividing this forum instead of which you are good at helping all here to get over the trauma of leaving the borg? I don't care what others believe politically as long as I know they are honest trustworthy individuals. Thank you for letting me Express myself. Still Totally ADD
