NASA’s ‘Hidden Figures’ receive Congressional Gold Medals

(NEXSTAR) – House Speaker Mike Johnson hosted an event Wednesday recognizing several women who contributed to the space race.

The Congressional Gold Medal was presented to the families of Katherine Johnson , Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Christine Darden at the U.S. Capitol. Darden watched the ceremony from her Connecticut home.

The women are often referred to as the “Hidden Figures” of the space race, and were the subject of both a book and film of the same name .

A medal was also given to all the women who worked as mathematicians, engineers and “human computers” in the U.S. space program from the 1930s to 1970s.

“By honoring them, we honor the very best of our country’s spirit,” said “Hidden Figures” author Margot Lee Shetterly.

The push to honor them was first introduced by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson on Feb. 27, 2019, with the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act, which was signed into law later that year.

“At a time in America when our nation was divided by color and often by gender, these women dared to step into the fields where they had previously been unwelcomed. They excelled in science and math and made groundbreaking contributions in aeronautics,” speaker Johnson said.

“But these women didn’t just crunch numbers and solve equations for the space program, they actually laid the very foundation upon which our rockets launched and our astronauts flew, and our nations soared.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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