![]() At the time of her entry, she was the first African-American woman to attend graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. In 1939, after marrying her first husband, James Goble, Johnson left her teaching job and enrolled in a graduate math program, but quit after one year, having become pregnant and choosing to focus on her family. She took on a teaching job at a black public school in Virginia. ![]() She graduated summa cum laude in 1937, with degrees in Mathematics and French, at age 18. Claytor added new math courses just for Katherine. Schiefflin Claytor, the third African American to receive a PhD in math. Multiple professors took her under their wings, including chemist and mathematician Angie Turner King, who had mentored the girl throughout high school, and W.W. As a student, she took every math course offered by the college. Johnson graduated from high school at 14 and entered West Virginia State College (now West Virginia State University), a historically black college. The family split their time between Institute during the school year and White Sulphur Springs in the summer. Johnson was admitted when she was only 10 years old. This school was on the campus of West Virginia State College (WVSC). ![]() ![]() Because Greenbrier County did not offer public schooling for African-American students past the eighth grade, the Coleman parents arranged for their children to attend high school in Institute, West Virginia. Johnson showed a talent for math from an early age. Her father was a lumberman, farmer, and handyman and worked at the Greenbrier Hotel. Johnson was born Katherine Coleman in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, the daughter of Joshua and Joylette Coleman. ![]()
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