Mary Jackson: NASA Mathematician and Aeronautical Engineer

Early Life

Mary WInston Jackson was born on April 9, 1921 to Frank Winston and Ella Scott Winston in Hampton, VA. Mary had a sister named Ella who was seven years older than her.

Mary lived in a time period where segregation was still very prevalent. This caused her to go to segregated schools. Despite this, she was able to graduate high school with highest honors.

Mary then moved on to college. She attended Hampton Institute in 1942. She earned a bachelor degree in mathematics and physical science.

Mary was always a very involved person. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, she volunteered to help young kids build a wind tunnel of their own, and she was involved in many other civic and social organizations.

Working Life

After college, Mary worked as a math teacher for a year in Maryland at a black school, but then returned to Hampton. She worked as a receptionist, a bookkeeper, and an army secretary before she found the job she was waiting for. She got a job at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory segregated West Area Computing Section in 1951 as a computer.

Mary at work

At Langley's Mary began in the segregated computing section where many African-American women mathematicians worked, occasionally getting a temporary job out of their small room with the white people. Jackson worked in the computing pool for two years and then she was offered to work for the engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki in the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel.

The Supersonic Pressure Tunnel staff.

Mary is in the bottom right corner.

Czarnecki requested Jackson to work with because he knew she was good at what she does, and he was right. At the time, Jackson was still just a mathematician. Czarnecki advised Jackson to apply to be an engineer. In order for Jackson to do this, she needed to take a few more classes. There was a problem though. Where she needed to take the classes was an all white school.

At first she was declined, but then she petitioned the court and was able to take night classes at the school. Not only was she the only African-American in the class, but she was also the only woman in the class. She then earned the promotion at NASA in 1958 and became NASA's and America's first African American female aeronautical engineer.

Mary worked as an engineer at NASA for almost two decades. During this time she authored and co-authored about a dozen reports. This was a large accomplishment because African American females did not write reports during this time.

As time went on, Mary realized that her promotions were starting to slow down. Mary found it difficult and frustrating that she could not reach management level, so she took a demotion and became the manager for Langley's Federal Women's Program. Here she worked hard to impact the next generation of NASA's female mathematicians, engineers, and scientists.

Mary received a many awards throughout her life including an Apollo Group Achievement Award and Langley's Volunteer of the Year in 1976.