NASA celebrated the agency’s first African American female engineer, Mary W. Jackson, with a ceremony to formally name the agency’s headquarters building in Washington in her honor. On February 26, 2021, a ceremony was held officially renaming the building.
Mary Winston Jackson loved science and wanted to help others. In the 1970s, she worked with kids at the King Street Community Center in Hampton to build a wind tunnel and do experiments. She wanted to show them that science was exciting and that there were many black scientists they might not know about.
Mary’s journey to becoming an engineer at NASA wasn’t straightforward. Born in Hampton, Virginia, she graduated in 1942 with degrees in Math and Physical Sciences. She started as a math teacher, then worked various jobs before joining NASA’s Langley Research Center in 1951.
At NASA, Mary worked in the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel, a powerful wind tunnel. She got a chance to train as an engineer and, in 1958, became NASA’s first black female engineer. She also wrote reports on airplane aerodynamics.
In the 1950s, female engineers were rare, and Mary was often the only black woman in her field. Over her career, she wrote many research reports and helped improve opportunities for future female scientists at NASA. In 1979, she shifted roles to become Langley’s Federal Women’s Program Manager, where she worked to support women in science.
Statement of the Reporter: Sharon Blaizis, our Aunt Sharon created the blue prints to build a part for the space shuttle engine in the 1980’s. She had to get a top secret clearance to be able to hold the engine part and create the manufacturing blueprints, so that the company she worked for could manufacture the critical engine parts for NASA’s Space Shuttle.
Mallory, NC, Reporter of ‘We The Kids See Action News’
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