On the afternoon of Sept. 18, SWE’s Executive Director & CEO Karen Horting was invited to the United States Capitol to attend a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony to honor Katherine Johnson, Dr. Christine Darden, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and all the women who contributed to the success of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its precursor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or the NACA, as computer scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.
The event was held in Emancipation Hall at the United States Capitol and was hosted by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). There were a number of speakers who praised the honored women and others who contributed to NASA’s achievements. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, a former astronaut himself, said, “The pioneers we honor today, these Hidden Figures — their courage and imagination brought us to the Moon. And their lessons, their legacy, will send us back to the Moon.”
Author Margot Lee Shetterly, who detailed the true stories of the women from NASA’s Langley Research Center in her 2016 book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race,” was also in attendance. There is no doubt that her book brought to light the stories of these women and their invaluable efforts and increased awareness of similar stories around NASA.
In her remarks, Shetterly noted that even as the Hidden Figures made such key contributions to NASA and the NACA before it, they remained active in their communities, leading Girl Scout troops and delivering meals to the hungry.
“They spent countless hours tutoring kids so that those kids, too, would see the power and the beauty of numbers they believed in, tending to the small D democracy that binds us to each other as neighbors and as American citizens,” she said.
Andrea Mosie, senior Apollo sample processor and lab manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, accepted the medal awarded to all NASA’s Hidden Figures. She began her career at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in the 1970s. Mosie thanked Congress for supporting NASA’s campaign to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon as part of Artemis and the agency’s efforts to provide “opportunities for people, more representative of the way our country looks, to understand humanity’s place in the universe.”
In addition to all the distinguished speakers, world renowned singer Audra McDonald brought those in the audience to tears with her rendition of “America the Beautiful.”
Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), who was a fierce ally to SWE’s policy goals during her 30 years in the US Congress, introduced HR 1396, the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act, in early 2019. It was one of the bills that SWE Congressional Outreach Day participants championed in meetings with their Congressional offices in March of that year. It was signed into law in November 2019. (Representative Johnson passed away in 2023.)
In 2015, President Barack Obama presented Katherine Johnson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. At the recent ceremony, the Congressional Gold Medal citations were as follows:
- Katherine Johnson: In recognition of her service to the United States as a mathematician.
- Dr. Christine Darden: For her service to the United States as an aeronautical engineer.
- Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson: Posthumous recognition for their contributions to the United States during the Space Race.
- All women who served as computers, mathematicians, and engineers at NASA and the NACA between the 1930s and 1970s: For their service in advancing America’s space exploration efforts.
Family members of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Dr. Christine Darden accepted the medals on behalf of their loved ones, while Dr. Darden watched the ceremony remotely.
Horting said it was an honor to represent SWE at the Gold Medal event, noting that “these women never tired in their efforts to support the Space Race. And in doing so they have served as role models for the generations that have come behind them. We are forever grateful for their work, and SWE is thrilled to see them be recognized with the Congressional Gold Medal.”
