Day 24 of Black History Month challenge: One black history post everyday for the entire month. . . She graduated in 1925 from Beechhurst High School with a full college scholarship and graduated from Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1929 as a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (Zeta Chapter) with her bachelorβs degree in mathematics, as well as a degree in foreign language (French). . . In 1943 Vaughan took what she thought would be a temporary position with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, now NASA) at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia. She was assigned to West Area Computers, a segregated group that consisted of all African American women mathematicians. These women provided critical information to the engineers conducting aeronautical experiments by testing performance and durability for new space equipment. Vaughan was appointed acting supervisor of the program in 1949, after the death of her manager and thus become the first African American woman to be promoted in the agency.Β It took two years, however for her to achieve permanent status in that position. . . In 2016 Vaughan was featured in the film Hidden Figures, which stars Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae.Β The film focused on three African-American at NASA who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and Apollo 11 in the 1960s. In doing so, it documented the careers and contributions of Katherine Johnson, Mary Winston Jackson, and Vaughan who is portrayed by Octavia Spencer in the film. . . #nasa #blacknasa #blackengineers #blackmathematicians #blackeducators #spaceforce #spacerace #hiddenfigures #tarijiphenson #octaviaspencer #janellemonae #humancomputer (at Kansas City, Missouri) https://www.instagram.com/p/B89lLW3goJ9/?igshid=1tkwp13e3fruj
