"Annie Easley" (April 23,1933-June 25,2011)

Was an African-American computer scientist,mathematician,and rocket scientist who was born in Birmingham Alabama.Annie worked for the Lewis Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space (NASA) and its predecessor,the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

(NACA).She was a leading member of the team which developed software for the Centaur rocket stage and one of the first African-Americans in her field.She was born to Samuel Bird Easley and Mary Melvina Hoover and was raised in Birmingham Alabama.In the days before the Civil Rights Movement,educational and career opportunities for African-American children were very limited.African-American children were educated separately from white children and their children were most inferior to white schools.Annie was fortunate in that her mother told her that she could be anything she wanted she would have to work at it.She encouraged her to get a good education and from fifth grade through high school,Annie attended a parochial and was valedictorian of her graduating class.After high school she went to New Orleans,Louisiana,to Xavier University,than an African-American Roman Catholic University,where she majored in pharmacy for two years.In 1954,Annie returned to Birmingham briefly.As part of the Jim Crow laws that established and maintained racial inequality,African Americans were required to pass an onerous literacy test and to pay a poll tax in order to vote.She remembered the test giver looking at her application,and saying only,"You went Xavier University.Two Dollars."Subsequently,Annie helped other African-Americans prepare for the test.In 1963,racial segregation of Birmingham's downtown merchants ended as a result of the Birmingham Campaign,and in 1964,the Twenty-fourth Amendment outlawed the poll tax in Federal elections.But it was not until 1965 that the Voting Rights Act elimated the literacy test.Shortly,thereafter she married and moved to Cleveland with the intention of continuing her studies.Unfortunately,the local university had ended its pharmacy program a short time before and no nearby alternative existed.In 1955,she read a local newspaper article about a story on twin sisters who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics(NACA) as "computers" and the next day she applied for the job.Within two weeks she was hired,one of four African-Americans of about 2500 employees.Annie began her career in a Mathematician and Computer Engineer at the NACA Lewis Flight Laboratory (which became NASA Lewis Research Center,1958-1999,and subsequently the John H.Glenn Research Center)In Cleveland,Ohio.Annie continued her education while working for the agency and in 1977,she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Cleveland State University.As part of a continuing education,she worked through specialization courses offered by NASA.