Dorothy Johnson Vaughan worked as a human computer, doing advanced math to help engineers design airplanes and rockets. She worked for NASA, supervising an office of other human computers.
In the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, before there were electronic computers, people who were good at mathematics were called computers, because that’s what they did, computed (did math), using adding machines, slide rules (a special sort of math ruler), pencils, and paper.
Dorothy Johnson was born on September 20, 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri. When she was seven, her family moved to West Virginia. She was so smart, she graduated from high school when she was only 14.
Dorothy got a full-tuition scholarship to Wilberforce University in Ohio, a college for African American students. When she graduated in 1929, her professors wanted her to keep studying and get an advanced degree, but times were hard and her family needed her help. So she moved home and got a job as a high school math teacher.
She married a man named Howard Vaughan Jr., and they had six children: Ann, Maida, Leonard, Kenneth, Michael, and Donald.
In the 1930s, many felt that being a college graduate and a teacher was the upper limit of what a black woman could achieve. After teaching school for 14 years, an unexpected path opened up for Dorothy.
In 1943 at her local post office, she saw a help-wanted notice for laundry workers at a nearby Army base. Maybe, she thought, in addition to teaching school and caring for her family, she could earn extra money working in a laundry.
But then, next to the laundry notice, a word caught her eye: mathematics. Another notice said that a federal agency in Hampton, Virginia – the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory – was looking for women who were good at math to help in the designing of airplanes.
Dorothy applied for the laundry job, but also applied for the math job. She was hired for the math job and quit teaching because this new position paid almost three times as much.
Many women – black and white – worked as human computers at Langley, and the two races were kept separate. There were different offices for blacks and whites, as well as bathrooms and lunch areas.
Sometimes this made things difficult, but it didn’t bother Dorothy. She loved the work and the people she worked with.
America was fighting World War II. Dorothy thought that when the war was over, she would have to go back to teaching school. When the war ended, she didn’t want to go back to teaching. Being a human computer and working with advanced math every day was a dream job for her.
She was so good at what she did, she was able to continue working at Langley after the war.
In 1949, Dorothy was promoted to supervisor, and eventually in 1958, when Langley became part of NASA, there was no more segregation based on color or gender. Everyone worked together.
When electronic computers began to replace human computers, Dorothy taught herself computer programming and helped other women at Langley learn this skill.
Dorothy Vaughan worked at the Langley Research Center for 28 years. She died in 2008 at the age of 98.
Fun Facts
• The school where she taught was Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. Named for African-American educator Robert Russa Moton, it is now a museum and National Historic Landmark.
• In 2016, Margot Lee Shetterly published a book called Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race. It includes much information about Dorothy Vaughan’s life and career.
• In 2019, Vaughan was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
• In 2019, a NASA scientist gave a crater on the moon the name Vaughan in Dorothy’s honor.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
