Like her father, Johnson’s high school principal recognized that she was destined for greatness. Johnson graduated from high school at 14, and college just four years later. But Joshua Coleman realized that his daughter was special - she was ready for high school at age 10 - so he drove his family 120 miles to Institute, West Virginia, to further her education. In other words, for most African Americans, junior high was the end of the line even for the most gifted students. With few exceptions, segregated schools for poor black students ended at grade eight.
The young prodigy couldn’t be contained even by the era’s bigoted constraints. From her earliest years, Johnson remembers loving numbers, so she never stopped counting - steps to school, footfalls to church, or drops falling from a leaky roof during spring rains. Katherine Coleman was born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Like so many extraordinary lives, it began humbly. Yet Johnson overcame every challenge, with grace and equanimity. A school system that offered few resources for black learners. Hers is a story of brilliance, but it’s also a story of perseverance and resolve, of creativity and intuition, of strength and honesty.Įvery obstacle imaginable littered the road before her. At every turn, she made a choice to become the protagonist in her own story and then of ours.” Humble beginnings in Virginia “At every fork, her talent, her hard work and her character pulled her toward her destiny. “We are living in a present that they willed into existence with their pencils, their slide rules, their mechanical calculating machines - and, of course, their brilliant minds,” said Shetterly at the ribbon cutting ceremony.