Katherine Johnson Civil Rights Movement

Katherine Johnson was known for her amazing mind ever since she was little. She was born on August 26th, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and is still alive today. Her mother worked as a teacher, and her father as a farmer and janitor. At the age of thirteen, she was one of only three black students picked to go to a prestigious, and primarily white college in West Virginia. Her family moved 125 miles away so she and her 3 siblings could further their education there. She actually enrolled in the college itself at fourteen and quickly learned the math curriculum. During college she met her first husband, James Goble. She eventually got involved in a choir at Carver Presbyterian church and stayed there for 50 years. She also joined

She grew up during the roaring twenties, but a big part of her life was the Great Depression and World War II. At this time, over one hundred million people from thirty different countries were involved in the war for around six years until America atomically bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. However, the biggest movement that affected Katherine was the “separate but equal’ enforcement. This movement basically said all races were “equal”, but they were racially segregated. This meant African Americans would eat at different restaurants, go to different restrooms, sit in the back of buses, and go to different schools (for the most part, Katherine was a rare exception). This affected her heavily during her work life; the bathroom segregation especially being a big problem because the only black bathroom was in a building far away. However, she eventually overcame it because of how impressively great her mind was, and her rare ability to overlook things and to forgive and forget. One big movement of lashing out during this time period was when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. This became a huge symbol of a reason to boycott because Parks got arrested for violating the city's racial rules. Another defining moment of civil rights was Martin Luther King Jr’s. “I Have a Dream” speech. During this speech, he improvised for 9 minutes after his prepared remarks and talked about how he envisioned that one day blacks and whites would stand equal together. Because Katherine is still alive today, she has obviously seen a big change in where we once were as a country racially to where we are now. People often see the Brown vs. Board of Education case as the main turning point in our end to segregation. During this case, the Supreme Court called it unruly to have segregated schools, causing all state and local laws that required segregation to