Hidden Figures is a Hollywood movie based on true events, but there are some things they exaggerated for the story. Katherine estimated that about 75% of what was shown in the film was accurate. For example, Dot, Mary, and Katherine didn’t actually commute to work together.

Those acts of racial and gender segregation depicted in the movie – separate bathrooms and coffee pots for people of color, for example – did all really happen, but not all of it happened to Katherine. Sometimes in stories, one character has to represent the experiences of many others.

The Johnson family is extremely grateful that so many people are now able to hear Katherine’s inspirational story because of Hidden Figures. Katherine’s husband, Jim, was not well enough to attend the Oscars with Katherine, but they did have a screening in their home and were overjoyed when he was able to recognize himself in the movie.

For many Black people in her time, it was hard to find a job other than laborer, janitor, servant, or maid without a college degree. With a college degree, the options were teaching or nursing. That’s why education was so important – it can open doors to new opportunities you didn’t know were available. Before she worked at NASA, Katherine was an educator for a number of years and would have continued to teach.

Yes, Katherine’s was very curious and eager to learn, but she also felt a drive to learn because she saw how much her parents were sacrificing to put her in the very best schools. Their hard work motivated her. She got excellent grades, but more importantly, she did her very best.

It’s no surprise that Katherine loved math, but not many people know how much she also loved English and French. She loved learning French so much, that she added a French accent to Mamà after she learned the language, and that became the name she called her mother from then on.

Katherine loved to play any games that kept her mind sharp. She didn’t like electronic games or video games, but instead liked puzzles, cards, and bingo. She also liked keeping physically fit and even took boxing lessons when she was almost 90 years old!

Katherine came from a family of excellent cooks, and she was no exception. She had pea salad and crab casserole recipes that the family still cooks every Thanksgiving. She would also make the tastiest applesauce.

Katherine loved to play the piano and would play in the choir and teach children how to play too. But to many of her friends and family, her work at NASA was secret because she never bragged about what she was doing. When the stories started to come out about her contributions, many said they had no idea!

Katherine said that she would have loved to have gone into space. While she was never able to go herself, in 2021 the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command named a GPS satellite after Katherine Johnson. So, in a way, she is in space right now!