During the 1960's, most of the United States was segregated. This means that many people were treated unfairly. African American people had to go to different schools, use different bathrooms, and even drink from different water fountains. The “White Man” was believed to be the strongest in all of society. During the 1960’s there was not only segregation towards African American’s, but unfair treatment towards women. Even though women were allowed to vote and have a say in the government, their opinions were often frowned upon. It was also fairly new to our country, to allow women to have the same rights as men. Men were often times given a higher pay, and had more opportunities than women. Katherine Johnson was an African American woman. Her accomplishments were very remarkable for this time in history.
During most of the time that Katherine was working at NASA, the United States was competing in the world space race. On October 4th, 1957, Sputnik, a Soviet Union satellite, was launched. Russia was then first into space. As you can imagine, the speed of things at NASA greatly changed. NASA hired Katherine and other women to work in different places there. This was highly unusual for the time, but without it, the United States might not have ever made it into space.
