Some were college-educated African American women whom NASA had begun recruiting in the 1940s. Jackson, did important and complex calculations by hand.

When proposing the addition of ceremonial street signs to the block, Mendelson noted that from the 1930s to the 1970s, numerous women worked for NASA and its predecessor-the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics-as “human computers.” Those like the ones depicted in “Hidden Figures,” including Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary W. Other District streets have also been symbolically named for historic people and institutions, like Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street NW.

Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and co-introduced by his 12 colleagues would bring the title of the 2016 biographical film and book to the 300 block of E Street SW. block where NASA’s headquarters is located is poised to be symbolically named “Hidden Figures Way” in the coming months thanks to a unanimously supported effort by District elected officials “to honor the historic women scientists and mathematicians who contributed to NASA’s mission despite adversity.”Ī bill floated last month by D.C. Council preliminarily approved a bill to ceremonially designate the NASA headquarters street as “Hidden Figures Way.” The Council must approve the bill on second reading-in two weeks-before it can become law.

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