They find the resources to tell them the story, but also try to figure out the significance of their topics in history. So theyre going into archives, into museums, into libraries and theyre sifting through primary sources, secondary sources and theyre thinking critically about that and why their traffic was important in history as related to the annual theme and this year is triumph and tragedy and them they present their findings in different formats and one of the categories that you see behind me and theres also paper category and dramatic performance, documentary or website. So history day gives kids an opportunity to be creative in the way in which they present their information. So for performance category, they first have to do their research. Good, Solid Research into primary and secondary sources. Going into the museums, say its the civil rights topic and theyll find someone to do an interview with, but basically, the research that historical quality, the information and the evidence, everyone has to do that, and then they have to think about that information in relationship to the theme, triumph and tragedy and history and determine why that topic is important, significant in history. What kind of change did it cause . Why should we care about this . And then finally, they present their information so they can choose any category and the students who choose performance i think really have to want to be up in front of a lot of people, but its ten minutes and ten minutes is a long time. It doesnt sound like it, but when youre standing up in front of judges, ten minutes is a long time. On the other hand, its a short amount of time if youve done massive amounts of research and you just want to tell everybody every single thing you usually thats what they want to do, but they cant and the reason that we have the time limit or an exhibit says, the word limit is to help students be concise. To learn how to decide what information should be presented and what can they leave out and still tell the story and still provide the evidence and the analysis. Katherine johnson, a quiet triumph in a white mans world. Katherine johnson was born in 1918 in white silver spring, West Virginia, and grew up aspiring to be a mathematician. Her father was a laborer and her mother stayed at home with the children. My father was the smartest man i knew. Educated only through the sixth grade, he could do numbers faster than you can bat your eye. I had a very interesting childhood, but oh, my, education was the primary focus in my family. Katherine raced through elementary and middle school and entered high school when she was 10. She went to allblack West VirginiaState College at age 15 where she met professor w. W. Crater. Dr. Crater was my meantor and he pushed me to pursue Research Mathematics and he made me take all of the courses, sometimes i was the only one in the course. Katherine graduated with highest honors in 1937 and took a job teaching at a predominantly black Public School in virginia. After a few years she left to enroll in a graduate math program. These were the years that katherine realized not only was her race a barrier, but also her gender. In the early 40s, the nation was polarized by world war ii and the world created an opportunity for them to step into the workforce and prove that they can do the same work as men, and just as well, if not better and the jim crow laws brought racial tensions in the workplace and school systems. Political waves soon began to shift in favor of africanamericans and president franklin d. Roosevelt gave blacks hope in his famous 1941 for the freedom of speech, he promised that men of every creed and every race, wherever they lived in the world are entitled to freedom. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. All our support goes to those who struggled to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity. He pledged to help overcome dictators in countries that deny other people their freedom. For years, he promised an end to discrimination and yet, action was still to follow. In 1952 a newspaper act caught the attention of my sister who my husband and i were living with and it read reduce house hold duties and women who are not able to roll up their sleeves to call the langley memorial and the laboratory and thats what i did. Years earlier, an ad like this would have been unthinkable by most employers who never would have considered a woman for a job who had always been performed by men. How tragic it was that highly intelligent and qualified women did not have the opportunity to share their gifts and talents with the world. Having seen the paper, katherine and her husband moved the family to virginia in 1953 to pursue the opportunity to work at langley. Katherine had to wait a year before she was hired as a human computer. Computers were women who had difficult equations using slide rulers. Nasa began to have many women working for them, white and black. However, was there still segregation. There was a small room that was expected to fit 20 black workers or more. Can you imagine working long hours every day . While the whites enjoyed modern technology and spacious rooms while sipping their good old, cup of coffee. Not only that, but no matter i and other women worked, we were only paid 16,000 a year while the men took home 26,000. Thats a 10,000 difference. After a few weeks of working there, dorothy vaughn, my supervisor assigned me to a project of the Flight Division and, well, i never looked back. We had these big data sheets, maybe 15, 20 columns across and 25 lines down and it was fascinating. Soon, it was obvious that she was different than the other computers. I requested to sit in on nasas briefings where Important Information related to orbital trajectories was discussed, but i was denied. They said women dont usually come to these things. It was shocking hearing them say that to me. She fought back telling them, i have to do, and yet still, i was denied. I asked once more if there was a law that women could not go into the briefings. Katherine used logic and her intellect to power through discrimination. After a few months her boss gave in and allowed her into an allmale, allwhite briefing room. Continuing her triumphant mission to desegregate and create a more Inclusive Work environment. Katherine was the first woman in her branch to sign her name on a research report. However, the fact that it was so hard for her to get equal treatment was tragic. If she hadnt been so determined her talent would have never been acknowledged. In 1957 russia launched sput nick, the first satellite in space, with the space race between america and the soviet union. She said the russian his a vehicle riding around looking down on you so nasa sent someone up there to look down, too. Three years the soviet union sent youre aeeureka guard the person ins say. President nixon said i hope this nation will land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth earth, and wanting to have a part of the soviet union, nasa began to work on reaching that goal. My team and i began the trajectory for the mission. 23 years, alan b. Shepherd became the First American to fly in space. In 1962, john glenn orbited earth. Nasa had recently acquired their first ibm computer which is programmed to calculate the trajectory and the manufactured computers were known to make mistakes. Now that the machine did most of the comp tagutation for nasa, h computers were not needed as much and they were putting their lives in the hands of electronic machines. A day before john glenn flew, he refused to get into the spacecraft unless Katherine Johnson personally doublechecked the numbers. He said get the girl to check the numbers. If she says theyre good im ready to go. It took me a day and a half to verify what the computer his given him. I worked through every minute of calculations. So when i delivered the data sheets to the project mercury engineers i had no doubt that they were correct. I was so happy for the success of the orbital mission. I may not have been recognized at the time, but i am so proud of my teams work. John glenns life will be long remembered for his service to all americans. Katherine was promoted to working on the Apollo Missions. She calculated the apollo 11 trajectory, however, the most important Apollo Mission he worked on was apollo 13. Planning to land on the moon an air tank exploded putting the three astronauts onboard in mortal peril. It took me a few hours to find a way to send the men home. The astronauts would have to fly around the far side of the moon and the moons gravity would sling shot apollo 13 back to earth. However, the astronauts would have to use the limited amounted fuel at certain intervals at specific times. My calculations brought the men home safely. Katherines success certainly didnt end there. In 2015, katherine was awarded the president ial medal of freedom from president barack obama. This award was a representation of how mrs. Johnsons astute mathematical skills and persistence to acquire equal treatment in the workplaces laid the groundwork for future women scientists and mathematicians. John nasa would never have been able to find the proper talent if she hadnt been so determined. Due to the unfair treatment america may never have had this triumph which would have been a tragic loss for the scientific community, as eloquently stated by mrs. Johnson on. We will always have s. T. E. M. With us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, but we will always have science, technology, engineering and we will always have mathematics. Here i stand, sophia polanco boyd, a latin american. And here i stand. A vision for katherines vision and had an equal chance to follow their dream. We stand together united in friendship and carrying on for a dream of equality. We stand together in aspiring. Scientist. Actress. Doctor, engineer. Because of women who would never allow them to stay in the kitchen. Pioneer Katherine Johnson. [ applause ] this National History day performance of Katherine Johnson, a quiet triumph in a white mans world won second place over 500,000 students competed at the local level, just 3,000 students advanced on the National Contest at the university of maryland. You can learn more about National History day at nhd. Org. Heres a look at the prime time schedule, starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, remarks from Alan Dershowitz on president ial impeachment and free speech. On cspan2 its book tv with authors who have recently written their memoirs and on cspan3 programs on the American Revolution and George Washingtons character. Watch book tv for live coverage of the National Book festival saturday starting at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. Our coverage includes author interviews with Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg on her book my own words, david treuer child of the dream and rick atkinson, author of the british are coming and thomas malone, founding director of the m. I. T. Center for collective intelligence discusses his book super finds. The National Book festival Live Saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on book tv on cspan2. In the wake of the recent shootings in el paso, texas, and dayton, ohio, the House Judiciary Committee will return from recess to, ma up the gun violence prevention bills which will ban highcapacity ammunition magazines and restricting firearms from those deemed by a court to be a to themselves and convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes from purchasing a gun. Live coverage begins wednesday september 4th at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan and cspan. Org and if youre on the go, listen to our live coverage using the free cspan radio app. The eagle has landed. Ill step off the land now