#hiddenfigures

[sistahscifi]

Dr. Gladys West. 1930 to 2026.

Born on a Virginia farm during the Jim Crow era, Dr West became one of only four Black employees at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in 1956 and the second Black woman ever hired there.

The mathematician's calculations quietly became the backbone of GPS technology used by billions of people every single day. The world has navigated by her work for decades before it learned her name. That's the kind of legacy that doesn't need a spotlight to be real. It just is.

We honor Dr. West and the long line of Black women who built the future while the world looked the other way🤎

Rest in power, Dr. West. We see you now.

[girlactionfigure]

History often remembers the men who fought—but forgets the women who resisted. From smuggling weapons in baby carriages to leading armed uprisings, women were a vital force in the fight against tyranny. Their courage was strategic, spiritual, and fierce. It’s time we told their stories.

Share this to honor the women history tried to forget.

Unpacked Media

[framedtruth-vellateam]

Last Fact-Checked: May 12, 2026 | 9 min read | History / Space | Vella Team John Glenn was already inside the capsule. The rocket was fueled

When I was younger, I thought history belonged to the people standing in front of the cameras.

The astronauts. The presidents. The men everybody already knew.

But somewhere inside NASA, a woman named Katherine Johnson sat quietly with a pencil, trying to calculate whether human beings could survive the darkness of space.

Nobody clapped for her while she was doing it.

And somehow that makes her story hit even harder.

Last Fact-Checked: May 12, 2026 | 9 min read | History / Space | Vella Team John Glenn was already inside the capsule. The rocket was fueled

[minyboy]

Pete the Cat has won the hearts of minds of millions, or so I am told. Good enough for the 300th cat.

[goodblacknews]

GBN celebrates nurse Marie Van Brittan Brown and electronics technician husband Albert for inventing a home video security system with a camera, TV monitor, two-way microphone, and push-button alarm to alert police. In 1969, Brown earned a patent and was recognized by the National Science Committee. Her work was cited in 32 subsequent US patents and influenced today’s closed-circuit security systems at banks, offices, and apartment complexes. #blackinventors #womenshistorymonth #techhistory #hiddenfigures https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp2obm-rzK-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cartermagazine]

Today In History Katherine Johnson was handpicked to be one of three black students to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools is something that many people would consider one of their life’s most notable moments, but it’s just one of several breakthroughs that have marked Katherine Johnson’s long and remarkable life. Born August 26, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, her intense curiosity and brilliance with numbers vaulted her ahead several grades in school. By 13, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. At 18, she enrolled in the college itself, where she made quick work of the school’s math curriculum and found a mentor in math professor W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in mathematics. In 1962, as NASA prepared for the orbital mission of John Glenn, Johnson was called upon to do the work that she would become most known for. The complexity of the orbital flight had required the construction of a worldwide communications network, linking tracking stations around the world to IBM computers in Washington, Cape Canaveral in Florida, and Bermuda. The computers had been programmed with the orbital equations that would control the trajectory of the capsule in Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission from liftoff to splashdown, but the astronauts were wary of putting their lives in the care of the electronic calculating machines, which were prone to hiccups and blackouts. As a part of the preflight checklist, Glenn asked engineers to “get the girl”—Johnson—to run the same numbers through the same equations that had been programmed into the computer, but by hand, on her desktop mechanical calculating machine. “If she says they’re good,’” Katherine Johnson remembers the astronaut saying, “then I’m ready to go.” Glenn’s flight was a success, and marked a turning point in the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in space. CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #cartermagazine #carter #katherinejohnson #hiddenfigures #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #staywoke #nasa https://www.instagram.com/p/ChuFx-4uR6Q/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[thehappybroadcast]

Mary W. Jackson, who was featured in the 2016 movie “Hidden Figures,” began her career at NASA “in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer, went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. In 2019, she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal,” NASA said in a news release. “Mary W. Jackson was part of a group of very important women who helped NASA succeed in getting American astronauts into space. Mary never accepted the status quo, she helped break barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and women in the field of engineering and technology,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. Source: NASA https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-names-headquarters-after-hidden-figure-mary-w-jackson

[astronomerosh19]

#Repost @nasa with @make_repost ・・・ 👩🏾‍🔬🚀🌟 Mary Jackson never accepted the status quo.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ Today we announced that our headquarters building in Washington, DC, will be named after engineer Mary W. Jackson, who overcame barriers to become NASA’s first Black woman engineer. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ Jackson started her NASA career in 1951 at what is now @NASALangley in Virginia as a human computer – a mathematician who performed hand calculations for NASA missions. After two years working in the West Area Computing unit, she received an offer to work in Langley’s Supersonic Pressure Tunnel, where she conducted extensive aeronautics research and authored or co-authored over a dozen research papers. She was promoted and, in 1958, became our first Black woman engineer.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ In 1979, Jackson made a final career change, leaving engineering to become the program manager for NASA Langley’s Federal Women’s Program. She would dedicate the rest of her career to the hiring and promotion of the next generation of women mathematicians, scientists, and engineers. She was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2019 and was portrayed by @JanelleMonae in the Oscar-winning film #HiddenFigures.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ Our Administrator @JimBridenstine noted, "We know there are many other people of color and diverse backgrounds who have contributed to our success, which is why we’re continuing the conversations started about a year ago with the agency’s Unity Campaign. NASA is dedicated to advancing diversity, and we will continue to take steps to do so.”⁣⁣⁣ ⁣ #MaryJackson #BlackinStem #womeninSTEM #nasa https://www.instagram.com/p/CCWYCyflpGe/?igshid=1i2sjp2ps3ljb