NASA names D.C. headquarters after Mary W. Jackson, its 1st Black female engineer

NASA is naming its headquarters in Washington, D.C., after trailblazer Mary W. Jackson, the agency's first African American female engineer.

Jackson was "part of a group of very important women who helped NASA succeed in getting American astronauts into space," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday. "Mary never accepted the status quo — she helped break barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and women in the field of engineering and technology."

In 1951, Jackson began working as a research mathematician for NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. NASA said she wanted to be promoted to an engineer position, and needed to request special permission in order to attend a training program with her white peers. In 1958, she became NASA's first Black female engineer.

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Her story was told in the book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, and she was played by Janelle Monáe in the subsequent movie. Jackson retired from NASA in 1985 and died in 2005; she posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2019.