The four trailblazing female African-American NASA mathematicians, engineers and researchers, well-known from the 2016 “Hidden Figures” book and movie, will be honored with congressional gold medals.
Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Dr. Christine Darden received the highest civilian award in the U.S. for their contributions to the space program when President Trump signed the “Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act” on Friday.
Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine introduced the legislation.
The scientists worked at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in the late 1950s.
The 2016 book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped win the Space Race,” told the story of Johnson, Vaughan, Jackson and Darden and was later made into a film.
In a news release posted on Tim Kaine’s website, the senators said: “We are thrilled that these four trailblazers are being recognized with this honor. Their engineering and calculations were essential to our nation’s success in the Space Race, but for too long, they didn’t receive the acknowledgment they deserve.”
