Washington — A group of Black women central to NASA’s success during the space race and known as the “Hidden Figures” are set to be honored Wednesday in a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony on Capitol Hill.
The “Hidden Figures,” who were considered crucial to NASA’s work from 1930-1970, were mathematicians and engineers who played a role in the earliest American space flights — calculating rocket trajectories and earth orbits and helping to put men on the moon. They’re set to be honored Wednesday with the Congressional Gold Medal, which is the highest award Congress can bestow.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is hosting the ceremony and will be joined by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma. NASA administrator Bill Nelson is also set to attend, along with Margot Lee Shetterly, who authored a book about the Black women mathematicians and their role in the space race that was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film in 2016.
“It’s not a first or an only story — it’s a story of a group of women who were given a chance and who performed and who opened doors for the women who came behind them,” Lee Shetterly told CBS News in 2019, when NASA renamed a block in front of its headquarters “Hidden Figures Way” to honor the women.
Three of the women — Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson — are being honored posthumously. The fourth woman, Christine Darden is being honored for her work as an aeronautical engineer.
Families of the four women will be presented with the medals at Wednesday’s ceremony, along with another medal that will be symbolically presented to all those whose contributions to NASA went unrecognized during the period.