“Everytime we have a chance to get ahead they move the finish line. Every time.”
-Mary Jackson
Mary Jackson was born on April 9, 1921 in Hampton, Virginia. She attended Phoenix High School and later went on to college at Hampton University. After graduating she taught in Maryland for a year before returning home to care for her ill father. She married Levi Jackson in the 1940s and they had two children. Her first job was at West computer where she worked for two years before being offered to work with engineer Kazimierz Carznecki in a wind tunnel.
1953 she took her first government job as a clerk at the Office of the Chief Army Field Forces at Fort Monroe. She worked in the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel. Carznecki then suggested that she go take classes to become an engineer, but the classes she needed to take were only available at Hampton High School, a segregated white school. She had to get approval from the City of Hampton to attend the needed classes.
Mary was granted permission and completed the classes. In 1975 she took a demotion to become the Langleys Women's Program Manager to help other women work at NASA. In 1958 she became NASA’s first black female engineer. For 20 years she worked as an engineer for NASA completing research and reports to create better planes. She achieved the highest title within engineering outside of becoming a supervisor. As an engineer she authored and co authored 12 technical papers about wind tunnels.She also earned the Apollo Group Achievement Award for her contributions to NASA. After 34 years working for NASA she retired in 1985. She passed away February 11, 2005 at the age of 83.