Annie Easley Biography

Annie J. Easley was an female African-American computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist. She helped develop power technology and software for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which we all know as “NASA”. She was born on April 23, 1933 in Birmingham, Alabama. Easley was the daughter of Samuel Bird Easley and Mary Melvina Hoover. Her and her only brother, who was six years old than her were raised by their single mother, who was a great encourager, and excelled in school. From the fifth grade throughout high school, Annie Easley attended church related schools in Birmingham, and graduated as class valedictorian. When finished with high school, Easley thought that nursing and teaching were the only careers open
In the year of 1955, Easley came across a newspaper article about twin sisters working as “human computers” at a Laboratory known as The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics or in shorter terms “NACA” which was NASA's predecessor at the Lewis Research Center located in Cleveland. She yearned for something new in her life, something that would keep her interest and make her challenge herself. At this exact moment she decided to accept an interview there and began taking the steps in order for her to accomplish her new set out goal. She started teaching herself how to perform hard calculations by hand or on large desktop calculators, and looking up functions in printed tables. The work sounded so interesting that the following day Easley applied for a job there, and soon enough was hired! This new position for her was nerve racking. Can you imagine? Stepping into a field so advanced, where you were looked down upon just because you were a female or when you walked into a room your skin color spoke for you without you saying a word. Annie and many of a close collages had a lot on their plate but each were determined to overcome the odds. When the laboratory received its first electronic computers, she and her colleagues were trained to operate on them with punch cards and eventually were given the title of "black female math technicians". As the machines advanced, so did they. With every new technology that came about, they were already ten steps ahead. After a couple of months working there Annie came across something that was strange to her. She realized that they didn’t have a dress code. Though during that time women only wore pants. Her and her collages knew that certain things were acceptable and some weren’t. Women were meant to dress polite and neat while men had the freedom to come and go as they pleased. That bothered both Annie and