in mathematics and had been teaching at Virginia State University before starting to work at the Langley Research Center in 1967.

She earned a Ph.D. in engineering at George Washington University in 1983 and has published numerous articles in her field.

Darden is one of the researchers featured in the book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race (2016), a history of some of the influential African-American women mathematicians and engineers at NASA in the mid-20th century, by Margot Lee Shetterly.

During elementary school, Darden took a great interest in breaking apart and reconstructing mechanical objects like her bicycle.

After moving into more aeronautical research, in 1973 Darden was promoted to a position as aerospace engineer by her superior John V. Becker.

[1] Her early findings in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in a revolution of aerodynamics design to produce low-boom sonic effects.

[8] In 1989, Darden was appointed as leader of the Sonic Boom Team, a subsidiary of the High Speed Research (HSR) Program.

"[9] 1998 abstract published by Darden describes the program as focused on "technologies needed for the development of an environmentally friendly, economically viable High-Speed Civil Transport [HSCT].

[11] Later, when many men were overseas fighting in World War II, more job opportunities were given to both white and African-American women.

The human computers performed calculations to support research into plane flight and, later, rockets.

Darden left the computer pool in 1989 for a position as engineer, working on decreasing sonic boom in supersonic flight.

[5] On January 28, 2018, Darden received the Presidential Citizenship Award at Hampton University in recognition for her contribution and service".