Born in 1918 Katherine began making breakthroughs at a young age. When West Virginia integrated its graduate schools in 1939, Katherine was selected as one of three black students to be offered places at the state’s flagship – West Virginia University.
Following graduate school, Johnson embarked on a career as a research mathematician – a difficult field to enter as both an African American and a woman. When a relative mentioned that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) – the precursor to today’s NASA – was hiring mathematicians, Katherine applied and was offered a job in 1953.
The next four years was taken up investigating plane crashes caused by wake turbulence. The research conducted helped shape Alan Shepard’s May 1961 mission Freedom 7, America’s first human spaceflight where Katherine provided trajectory analysis. Despite this pivotal work, Johnson and the other African-American women in the computing pool were required to work, eat, and use restrooms that were separate from those of their white peers up until desegregation in 1958 when NACA became NASA.
In 1962 Johnson was called upon to work on the project she would become most known for, the orbital mission of John Glenn. Astronauts were wary of putting their lives in the hands of new electronic computing machines (prior to 1958 NASA only employed human “computers” – a job title which meant “one who computes”), as they were prone to problems. As a part of the pre-flight preparations, Glenn requested staff to “get the girl”—Johnson—to run the same numbers through the same equations that had been programmed into the computer, by hand.
“If she says they’re good… then I’m ready to go” said Glenn.
Glenn’s flight was a success and signified a turning point in the space race between the USA and Soviet Union.
Johnson retired in 1986 after 33 years at what is now known as Langley Research Center. “I loved going to work every single day,” she said. In 2015 Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour by President Barack Obama.
She passed away on 24 February 2020, but her pioneering legacy lives on.
Our third ‘Hidden Figure’ of October was a true pioneer in not one but two fields – the football pitch and the fields of war – and has just entered the Hall of Fame at the National Football Museum
Walter Tull seemed to face adversity at every step of his short but eventful life. Walter, along with his brother Edward, was left orphaned at just nine years of age after his mother died of breast cancer and his father of a heart attack. The two young boys were moved from their native Folkstone to a children’s home in Bethnal Green.
It was here that Walter’s love and talent for the beautiful game first became apparent, and at the age of 20 he was signed for local amateur club Clapton FC – one of the first black players in English football. Reports were Walter never played a losing game, and was called the “catch of the season” by the Football Star.
Fame came calling just a year later when Walter signed for Tottenham as inside forward. During his short time with the club, Walter endured horrific racial abuse at the hands of the opposing fans. Newspaper reports of the time state that, despite being abused with language “lower than Billingsgate [market]”, Walter remained, at all times, a true professional;
“He is Hotspur’s most brainy forward … so clean in mind and method as to be a model for all white men who play football … Tull was the best forward on the field.”
Walter’s life took a very different turn with the outbreak of the Great war in 1914. He wasted little time in enlisting, joining the ‘Footballer’s Battalion’ (what else?) of the Middlesex Regiment in December 1914. He fought extensively in the war including on the Italian and Western fronts, and at the battle of the Somme. His “gallantry and coolness” helped him climb the ranks, becoming a second lieutenant in 1917 – one of the first mixed-heritage men to become an officer in the British Army, and the first black man to command white troops.
Walter’s life was cut tragically short on 25th March 1918 in northern France, during a German offensive. He was just 29 years old. When notifying of his death, his commanding officer recommended Walter for a Military Cross – for his gallantry and brave service.
Despite never receiving the award he clearly deserved, today Walter has been recognised for his contribution to the beautiful game. This week he was posthumously entered into football’s Hall of Fame, in a ceremony at the National Football Museum, Manchester.
Former Tottenham defender Ledley King, who was at the ceremony, described Walter as a “true inspiration – to me and for every black footballer who has come through since”
Sources for this blog;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43504448
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58992003
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Tull
Marking the second in our ‘Hidden Figures’ series is a look at the woman who has just topped the 2022 Powerlist – Microsoft CDO Jacky Wright
First published in 2007, The Powerlist is a list of the top 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage working in the UK. Famous recent winners have included the author Malorie Blackman, Brexit activist Gina Miller, and last year’s winner, Formula 1 driver Sir Lewis Hamilton.
2022’s winner is admittedly less of a household name – Microsoft Chief Digital Officer Jacky Wright.
We did a little research to find out more about Jacky and her background – and how she explains her business philosophy in her own words.
Jacky was born in Jamaica, her parents part of the Windrush generation that came to the UK in search of a better quality of life for their families. Her father served in the Royal Air Force and distilled in Jacky the belief that, through striving and hard work, she could truly be and do anything she wished.
Hear Jacky in her own words in this BBC interview:
Jacky has spent much of her working life in the US, with senior positions at major multinationals such as BP, General Electric and Anderson Consulting. But she returned to the UK in 2017 for a two-year stint overseeing the transformation of HMRC to a truly modern, digital organisation.
Clearly, Jacky does not shy away from a challenge. The ongoing transformation of the UK’s tax body is fundamental shift – involving the relocation of 65,000+ employees into 13 regional UK hubs by 2025.
At the same time, the government had set itself the challenge of becoming the UK’s most diverse employer by 2020. For Jacky, these two challenges, at first seemingly separate, are at the heart one and the same.
“Becoming a more diverse environment is not just about making government a better workplace. It is also about enabling government to work better: you can more effectively serve the breadth of the citizenry if your workforce is composed of a similarly broad cross-section”
For Jacky, if organisations such as HMRC are to truly modernise, decentralise and better reflect contemporary working practices, it is vital that the people making the decisions best represent UK society as a whole.
“I want my team to be an inclusive team from all walks of life, because then we can best address problems. Diversity informs me like it should inform anything that anyone does…We’ve got to understand the citizens, because we have to make sure they are able to interact with us – no matter who they are, what walks of life they are from, or whether they have disabilities. And, in order to do that, I’ve got to think broadly.”
We think we can learn a lot from Jacky’s ethos, in how we continue to build modern, forward-thinking and inclusive organisations.
Congratulations to Jacky on topping the Powerlist – we don’t think we’ve heard the last of her!
Sources for this blog;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-58890913
The 1960 Rome Olympics introduced the world to a boxing superstar named Cassius Clay, better known perhaps as Muhammad Ali. But it’s a lesser known gold medal winner from that games who’s the star of our first ‘Hidden Figures’
Wilma Rudolph took home no less than 3 gold medals for athletics in 1960, namely the 100m, 200m and 4 x100m relay. An impressive feat in itself, but even more impressive when you understand Wilma’s background.
The twentieth of 22 siblings, Wilma was born in 1940 in Clarksville, Tennessee. She was born premature, weighing just 4.5 pounds. She suffered from multiple illnesses in her childhood, including pneumonia, scarlet fever and polio – which left her lame in her left leg and foot. Medical care for African-Americans was in short supply in Clarkesville, so Wilma and her mother Blanche were forced to make a weekly bus journey some 50 miles to the largely-black medical centre in Nashville, for treatment. This continued for 2 long years, until Wilma regained the use of her leg, by the time she was 12 years old.
Wilma’s athletic talents were spotted at high school, where she soon earned the nickname ‘Skeeter’ due to her speed. At the tender age of 16, and the youngest member of the squad, Wilma travelled across the globe to the Melbourne Summer Olympics, where she brought home bronze in the 4 x 100m relay.
Four years later in Rome, Wilma competed in 3 events, winning gold in all 3 – becoming the first American woman to win three golds in a single Olympics. In sometimes scorching temperatures of 110F (43C), Wilma was inspired by another American sprinter – Jesse Owens, her inspiration from the infamous 1936 games in Berlin.
Whilst her victories had her cast as America’s ‘leading lady’, Wilma returned home to a very divided nation. When Clarksville celebrated ‘Welcome Wilma Day’ to celebrate her achievements, Wilma used her new-found fame to insist that the event be fully integrated between black and white people – the first fully integrated event in the city’s history.
Wilma retired from running age 22, feeling she had reached the heights of her Olympic career. In her own words; “I’ll stick with the glory I’ve already won, like Jesse Owens did in 1936”
Perhaps Wilma thought her fame was required elsewhere. As well as gaining a degree in education in 1963, Wilma spent over a month in west Africa as a US goodwill ambassador. On her return, she took part in a civil rights protest in Clarkesville to desegregate the city’s restaurants. Within weeks, all of the city’s restaurants, as well as public facilities, became fully integrated between black and white people.
No doubt the childhood memory of those weekly 50 mile bus rides to a ‘black’ hospital were high in Wilma’s mind – with a determination that no other young black child would have to endure the same hardships.
October in the UK marks Black History Month, and for the second year, here at KOREC we are taking part.
Last year, we asked our people to tell us who had inspired them, or left a positive impact on their life. As well as some personal connections, some notable names such as Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama were cited as inspirational figures.
As a contrast, this year, we are taking our lead from these quotations from BHM editor Catherine Ross, and Minister of State for Equalities, Kemi Badenoch;
“Because black history is British history“
Dawn Butler MP (first female African-Caribbean minister to speak at the dispatch box)
Hidden Figures
Throughout the month, we’ll be focussing on some lesser known black figures from throughout history. The aim is to not only highlight people who have changed the course of history, but to educate ourselves on who these people were, the times they lived in, the challenges they faced – and the contributions they made to society.
So instead of familiar names, we’ll be talking about some lesser known (or even hidden) figures from throughout history – so if the names Wilma Rudolph, Ignatius Sancho, Mary Seacole, Harriet Tubman or Katherine Johnson don’t mean much right now, we hope that come October 31st we’ll all have learnt a little more.
After all, as this timeline shows – the black history of Britain is far from recent…
This October we wanted to recognise Black History Month in our own, unique KOREC way. So we put it to our people – we asked our colleagues to tell us who inspires them, or has made a positive impact on their life.
These people could be world-famous faces, or a close personal friend. They could have shaped the course of history, or simply made a grey day a little brighter. We were delighted with the response from our colleagues, and we are pleased to share them with you.
Rachael Whelan is inspired by…Phil Lynott
Phil Lynott is an inspiration of mine as he was born in the late 1940s and grew up as practically the only Black person in Ireland. He was picked on because of his race but it instilled in him a fantastic confidence in himself that you could see on stage when he performed. He formed the band Thin Lizzy in 1969 after being fired from the band Skid Row for not being a good singer! The main line up for the band changed from time to time but Thin Lizzy was essentially Phil Lynott. Best songs where ‘Boys Are Back in Town’ (featured in Toy Story 1) and the rock version of the Irish Trad song, ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ (also covered by Metallica). He died of pneumonia on 4th January 1986, he was 36 years old. In 2005 a statue of Phil was unveiled on Dublin’s Grafton street to commemorate him.
Rachael is an office administrator in our Dublin office
Debbie Vincent is inspired by…the children of South Africa
Mine would have to be the children that my son met out in South Africa in November 2016 – he went there with the Mellon Educate Mellon Charity completing a school building project. Such happy bright individuals suffering hardship every day!
Debbie is Operations Manager of our Huntingdon office
Sarah Rodney is inspired by….Lincoln Noel
I would like to nominate my friend Lincoln Noel. He’s a talented pianist and church organist and a very dear friend of mine. He has supported me personally through good times and bad. During lockdown, he would put on a little concert on Facebook on a Sunday afternoon and my daughter and I would sing along and dance round the kitchen like a pair of loons. This was a wonderful way to boost morale during a very dark time and was often the highlight of my week.
Sarah is Hire & Workshop controller at our Huntingdon office
Julian Gray is inspired by…Nelson Mandela
How do I sum this man up in a few sentences? As a white African man growing up in South Africa, the background and context is vitally important to understanding this, something the rest of the world will find hard to grasp but let me try…
In the mid-1980s, my country was divided along racial lines with a division that was deep, cruel and affected every person, black and white living in our beautiful land. Hatred across the board was a passion all experienced at some level or other. And then one day, FW de Klerk announced that enough was enough and the laws supporting this system were abolished, and the one person we had come to believe epitomised everything we as white Africans fought against and black Africans defended, was released. For the first time we saw and heard Nelson Mandela –and heard his first speech calling for Peace and Reconciliation. Peace? Reconciliation? Huh? Where was the battle cry? Where was the call to arms?
This man started to perform a miracle. He spoke of Peace. He acted out Peace, He exuded Peace. He brought together enemies who hated the very ground each other walked on, made us all sit around a table, share a meal, talk together, work together. He taught us the meaning of the word Forgiveness. He was not alone – next to him was another great man Bishop Desmond Tutu – and they calmed the land, and brought Peace. They enabled us to start to heal. To realise that our enemy was not our enemy, but a fellow African, with dreams, aspirations, fears, joys just like us. He changed the whole country to the Rainbow Nation it is today. He changed me. We called him Madiba – Father of the Nation. And he truly was.
My deep regret is that he was part of our lives for such a short time. If only he had been there in the 1970s, if only he had shown us earlier that what we were doing, what we were defending was so unbelievably wrong…
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, father of the Nation, Madiba – without any doubt in my mind the greatest man to walk this Planet in the last 200 years.
Julian is a structural monitoring specialist
Florentin Toplicianu is inspired by…Barack Obama
I am inspired by this man, of course well known as the 44th President of the United States and the first African-American to hold the office.
As President, he slowly ended US participation in the Iraq War, having prepared the country to defend itself. He signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (often called “Obamacare”) which changed many health care laws and made affordable healthcare a reality for many millions of people.He also enacted many acts to create public works jobs to help the economy.
He became the first President to openly express support for gay marriage, proposed gun control and opened diplomatic relations with Cuba.
In 2009, he won the Peace Nobel Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people”
In November 2015, he attended the Paris Climate Conference held in Paris, France. The United States committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Florentin works in our geospatial technical support team, in our Liverpool office
Black History month (UK) is marked every October, and the theme for 2020 is ‘Dig Deeper, Look Closer, Think Bigger’. Find out more about BHM on the official website;
https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/
