NASA headquarters to be named after ‘Hidden Figures’ trailblazer Mary Jackson

NASA’s headquarters in Washington D.C. will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the agency’s first African American female engineer, NASA announced Wednesday.

Mary Winston Jackson, who died in 2005, was one of the women whose lives were recounted in the book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race.” Janelle Monae portrayed her in the 2016 movie “Hidden Figures.”

Jackson was known as one of the “human computers” when she was a research mathematician at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Jackson “helped break barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and women in the field of engineering and technology.”

“Today, we proudly announce the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building. It appropriately sits on ‘Hidden Figures Way,’ a reminder that Mary is one of many incredible and talented professionals in NASA’s history who contributed to this agency’s success,” Bridenstine said. “Hidden no more, we will continue to recognize the contributions of women, African Americans, and people of all backgrounds who have helped construct NASA’s successful history to explore.”

The administrator tweeted Wednesday afternoon there will be a formal naming ceremony soon.

Jackson was recruited by NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in 1951 and worked in a segregated unit under fellow “Hidden Figure” Dorothy Vaughan. She became NASA’s first Black female engineer in 1958 and authored or co-authored numerous reports for nearly two decades, according to NASA.

She left engineering in 1979 and took a demotion to fill a position as Langley’s Federal Women’s Program Manager, leading programs that influenced “the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers,” the agency said. Jackson retired in 1985.

Jackson was posthumously awarded the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act in 2019 by President Donald Trump along with her “Hidden Figures” colleagues Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Christine Darden.

A portion of the street near NASA’s D.C. headquarters was renamed Hidden Figures Way following a bipartisan bill last year.

This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 4:28 PM with the headline "NASA headquarters to be named after ‘Hidden Figures’ trailblazer Mary Jackson."