African American Women In The 1900's

During the 1900’s, segregation was very common. There was racial discrimination along with gender inequality. To most anglo people, women were not meant to work. They were meant to be a wife, stay home, cook, and watch the children. To many, that was what women, let alone African American women, were “destined” to be. Women weren’t meant to be educated or be in the workforce.
Many women wanted to abolish gender inequality. Throughout history, several boycotts and movements occurred because of the inequality and segregation that happened. Women didn’t believe that all they were meant to do in life was to cater to their husbands 24/7. Along with gender inequality was racial discrimination. Both racial discrimination and gender inequality gave

Dorothy Vaughan was born on September 20, 1910 in Kansas City. Dorothy went to Wilberforce University in 1929. Although gender inequality and racial discrimination still occurred, Dorothy fought her way through school ad was hired by NASA in December of 1943. She was the first African American woman mathematician and first manager. She worked in the “west colored computer room”. One day Dorothy realized that the IBM wasn’t working so she secretly went in another room to fix it. Several of the white male workers could not figure out what was wrong with it, therefore, they could not fix it. Dorothy was able to fix it and was admired for it. She was admired because the IBM was a very important tool to calculate all the right equations NASA

She said, “I loved to work every single day.” In 2015, (97 years old), President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That medal is America’s highest civilian honor.

Mary Jackson was born April 9, 1921 in Hampton, Virginia. In the 1970’s, she helped many young people in the science club at Hampton’s King Street Community center build a wind tunnel. They used that wind tunnel to conduct different varieties of experiments. Mary Jackson graduated from the Hampton Institute in 1942. She graduated with a dual degree in Mathematics and Physical Sciences. She then got a job as a math teacher at a black school in Maryland.
After many different career changes, she was hired at NASA in 1951. After two years, Mary Jackson got offered to help an engineer work on a 4-by-4-foot Supersonic Pressure Tunnel. The engineer offered Mary a training job so she can be able to get a promotion to an engineer. Because of the segregation at the time, Mary needed special acceptances by the City of Hampton to be able to join the classroom with anglo people. Mary always fought and believed in herself therefore, soon enough, Mary completed all the courses needed, got the promotion she deserved and then in 1958 she became NASA’s first African American female