by Barbara Evans Fleischauer
She was just 15 years old in 1926. After being named valedictorian of the senior class of the segregated Beechurst High School, Miss Dorothy L. Johnson, pictured here, traveled 261 miles from her home in Morgantown to attend Wilberforce College, the nation’s oldest privately owned Black college.
Expressing the hopes of the Negro race for the future, the West Virginia A.M.E. Church awarded her its first Wilberforce scholarship, raising funds from the sale of an eight-page pamphlet. In tender and earnest language, Miss Johnson is described as “not just a star among our own race, but one who stands out prominently and compares favorably with the best in scholarship, character and achievements of any race.”
The pamphlet was sold for 35 cents. In 1926, a loaf of bread cost 12 cents and gas was 18 cents a gallon. Somewhat amazingly, her fellow church members sold sufficient copies of the small pamphlet to enable Miss Johnson to graduate from college in 1929.
To honor Dorothy Johnson Vaughan and Katherine Johnson, two of the “Hidden Figures” in the book and the movie with ties to this state, a fair pay bill that would provide a remedy against the type of pay discrimination they suffered was named after both women.
At age 97, Katherine Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contributions to the NASA efforts to explore space and safely land a person on the moon.
Yet Dorothy Johnson Vaughan, who died before the book was published, played an equally important role in the real-life drama behind the book and movie. Mrs. Vaughan was the supervisor of the Black women “computers,” which was the job title of the female mathematicians who worked at NASA’s Langley Research Center.
“Hidden Figures” exposed how the Black women performed the same work as the white female “computers” and the white males, whose job title was engineer. But the Black women had to work in a segregated unit, were paid far less than the white men and women and had to walk long distances in heels to access the “colored” women’s bathroom.
The movie showed how Dorothy Vaughan taught herself and the Black women programming when she realized their jobs would be eliminated by the advent of what we now call computers. She lost her supervisor position when the unit was desegregated.
Sadly, like so many other Black and white women, Dorothy Vaughan hit the glass ceiling. Despite her clear talent and community belief in her, Dorothy Vaughan’s advancement was halted. Mrs. Vaughan never received the pay or the recognition that she deserved for her contributions to safe travel in space or towards lifting African-American women within NASA.
For five years, I have been part of a bipartisan group of West Virginia legislators who sponsored legislation to allow all employees to discuss their wages with coworkers. Some employers forbid these discussions, which may be the only way to know if wages are fair. The bill is an attempt to address pay disparities that research has shown are not based on education or experience.
The gap between women’s and men’s wages in West Virginia continues to be one of the largest in the nation. The pay gap is even worse for Black women. According to the National Women’s Law Center, women in West Virginia on average earned 29% less than men in 2020. Over a lifetime, this amounted to over a half million dollars in lost wages. For Black women, the lifetime earning losses due to the pay gap were a staggering $723,800.
Unfortunately, our Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan Fair Pay bill has languished, while similar legislation has passed in other states.
It is time to reclaim and honor both Dorothy Johnson Vaughan and Katherine Johnson for the important contributions they made to West Virginia and our country. Please contact your state delegate or senator and ask them to help get the Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan Fair Pay Act passed into law this year.
Barbara Evans Fleischauer represents Monongalia County in the West Virginia House of Delegates.
