Mary Jackson African American Engineering

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Mary Winston Jackson was an African American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Mary Jackson grew up in Hampton, Virginia. After graduating with highest honors from high school, she then continued her education at Hampton Institute, earning her Bachelor of Science Degrees in Mathematics and Physical Science. Following graduation, Mary taught in Maryland prior to joining NASA. Mary retired from the NASA Langley Research Center in 1985 as an Aeronautical Engineer after 34 years. Mary Jackson began her engineering career in an era in which female engineers of any background were a rarity; in the 1950s, she very well may have been the only black female aeronautical engineer in the field. For …show more content…

There, she worked hard to impact the hiring and promotion of the next generation of all of NASA’s female mathematicians, engineers and scientists. Despite all the obstacles that were thrown along Mary Jackson's path, she strived to become an engineer in NASA. Because of her intelligence and courage, she was one of the engineers that helped America win the space race. Furthermore, she has also significantly contributed to NASA's Project Mercury. Czarnecki, an engineer, and Mary Jackson, a mathematician, both worked on experimental tasks in the facility then Czarnecki advised Jackson to enter a training program to enable her to gain promotion from mathematician to engineer. To be qualified for the training program, Jackson had to take on graduate level mathematics and physics courses after her working hours that was administered by the University of Virginia. Because the classes were taught at then-segregated school, Jackson had to legally fight for her right to join the all-white

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