Katherine Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, on August 26, 1918.
Creola Katherine Coleman (later Katherine Johnson) was born on August 26, 1918, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, the youngest of four children of Joshua and Joylette Coleman. From an early age she displayed an extraordinary aptitude for mathematics, reportedly counting everything around her—steps, dishes, and stars.
Because Greenbrier County did not offer public schooling for African American students beyond eighth grade, her father arranged for the family to relocate seasonally to Institute, West Virginia, so his children could attend high school on the campus of West Virginia State College. This sacrifice reflected the broader barriers Black families faced in the segregated South, where access to education was neither guaranteed nor equal.
Johnson's precocious talent led her to skip several grades, and she entered high school at just ten years old. Her early life set the foundation for a career that would later place her at the center of some of the twentieth century's greatest scientific achievements, including the calculations that sent American astronauts into space and to the Moon. Her birth marks the beginning of a story that would challenge and ultimately help dismantle racial and gender barriers within American science and engineering institutions, particularly at NASA and its predecessor, NACA.
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