Mary Winston Jackson was born on April 9, 1921 to Ella and Frank Winston. She grew up in Hampton, Virginia. Mary went to an all black high school called George P. Phenix Training School. She graduated from high school with the highest honors.

Early Life

Mary attended college at the Hampton Institute. In 1942, she graduated college and earned her Bachelor of Science Degrees in Mathematics and Physical Science.

Occupations

After graduating from college, Mary took a job as a math teacher at a black school in Calvert County, Maryland. She taught there for a year before returning home, and found a job as a receptionist at the King Street USO Club.

Mary switched jobs a few more times before landing a job at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory's segregated West Area Computing section in 1951. Langley was a part of NASA. The laboratory was located in Hampton, Virginia.

NASA Langley Research Center

At Langley, Mary worked as a human computer or a research mathematician. Her group's supervisor was Dorothy Vaughan.

Two years later, she received an offer to work with Kazimierz Czarnecki in the 4-foot by 4-foot Supersonic Pressure Tunnel. It was a 60,000 horsepower wind tunnel capable of blasting models with winds approaching twice the speed of sound. This tunnel was located in the Compressibility Research Division.

Mathematician to Engineer

Czarnecki offered Mary hands on experience conducting experiments in the facility. During Mary's time in the tunnel, her focus was understanding airflow, which included drag and thrust forces. Eventually Czarnecki suggested that Mary take a training program that would allow her to earn a promotion from mathematician to engineer.

Mary went to Hampton High School to take graduate level math and physics in order to become an engineer. She had to ask the City of Hampton permission to attend classes with white people since it was a segregated school.

Engineer for NASA

In 1958, Mary completed her courses and became NASA's first black engineer. In that same year, she co-authored her first report, Effects of Nose Angle and Mach Number on Transition on Cones at Supersonic Speeds. In the 1950s, Mary was the only black female aeronautical engineer in the field.