Washington — A group of black women who were central to NASA’s success during the space race and were known as “Unrecognized heroes” were honored Wednesday at a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony on Capitol Hill.
“This has been a long time coming,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said at the ceremony. “At a time when our nation was divided by race and often by gender, these women dared to enter spaces where they were previously unwelcome.”
The “Hidden Figures” were considered crucial to NASA’s work from 1930 to 1970. They were mathematicians and engineers who played a role in the first American space flights – they calculated rocket trajectories and Earth orbits and helped put people on the moon.
Three of the women – Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – were honored posthumously. The fourth woman, Christine Darden, was honored for her work as an aeronautical engineer.
Johnson thanked women for “laying the foundation on which our rockets launched, our astronauts flew, and our nation flourished.”
“Although we call them ‘unrecognized figures,’ we should not view them as mere minor figures in the American history of space, intelligence and exploration,” Johnson said. “They were the engineers and mathematicians who made history itself.”
Democrat and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called their contributions “countless” and said they “proved an irrefutable fact: Our diversity is a strength.”
The medals were presented to the families of the four women. Another medal was symbolically presented to all those whose services to NASA were not recognized during this period.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said their accomplishments were “all the more impressive” considering the challenges they faced due to racism and sexism.
“Awarding the Congressional Gold Medal recognizes their lives and work and ensures that they will continue to inspire Americans for years to come,” Nelson said. “When the first woman lands on the moon as part of the Artemis program, she will follow in the footsteps of the women we honor today.”
Also praising the women were Margot Lee Shetterly, author of a book about black female mathematicians and their role in the space race, which was made into a film in 2016 and nominated for an Oscar, as well as Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, and Representative Frank Lucas, a Republican from Oklahoma.
