Katherine johnson biography

(1918-2020)

Who Was Katherine Johnson?

Katherine Johnson made the most of limited educational opportunities for African Americans, graduating from college at age 18.

She began working in aeronautics as a "computer" in 1952, and after the formation of NASA, she performed the calculations that sent astronauts into orbit in the early 1960s and to the moon in 1969. Johnson was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and saw her story brought to light through a book and a feature film the following year.

She passed away on February 24, 2020, at the age of 101.

Early Years and Education

Johnson was born Katherine Coleman on August 26, 1918, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. A bright child with a gift for numbers, she breezed through her classes and completed the eighth grade by age 10.

Although her town didn’t offer classes for African Americans after that point, her father, Joshua, drove the family 120 miles to Institute, West Vi