These women were a subset of the hundreds of female mathematicians who began careers in aeronautical research during World War II.
To offset the loss of manpower as men joined the war effort, many U.S. organizations began hiring, and actively recruiting, more women and minorities during the 1940s.
[2] In 1958, when the NACA made the transition to NASA, segregated facilities, including the West Computing office, were abolished.
[1] The computers played major roles in aircraft testing, supersonic flight research, and the space program.
[9] That said, both the black and white women Golemba interviewed recalled that when computers from both groups were assigned to a project together, "everyone worked well together.
[7][13] Mathematician Katherine Johnson, who in 2015 was named a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, joined the West Area Computing group in 1953.
She was subsequently reassigned to Langley's Flight Research Division, where she performed notable work including providing the trajectory analysis for astronaut John Glenn's MA-6 Project Mercury orbital spaceflight.
Many small protests occurred in the segregated dining room since colored women were forbidden to enter the white cafeteria.