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Hampton native featured in ‘Hidden Figures’ to be honored at Oscar week event

Posted at 4:45 PM, Feb 21, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-21 16:46:09-05

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – One of the women featured in the Oscar-nominated ‘Hidden Figures‘ will be honored in Newport News.

United Steelworkers Local 8888 announced they will host a Distinguished Trailblazer Reception on February 23 (during Oscar Week), to celebrate Black History Month and to honor the late mary-jackson-at-workMary Jackson.

Jackson was a Hampton native who became the first black female aerospace engineer at NASA in 1958, and is one of three black womenportrayed as trailblazers in ‘Hidden Figures.’

Local 8888 has a special connection to Jackson and the inspiring movie, which has grossed more than $110 million since it opened Christmas Day last year.

Jackson’s daughter, Carolyn Marie Lewis, is married to Raymond Lewis, a train operator at the Newport News Shipyard and a Local 8888 Trustee, according to the United Steelworkers.

At the reception Jackson’s family will receive a Distinguished Trailblazer plaque from the union, which represents more than 6,500 shipyard employees.

The program will also feature the reading of a poem dedicated to Ms. Jackson and a solo by a guest vocalist. Congressman Bobby Scott (D-Va) will offer his praise for the Hampton native who graduated from the all-black George P. Phoenix Training School with the highest honors.

United Steelworkers said in their release Jackson was so much more than a trailblazer: She taught. She tutored. She mentored. She raised a family. She was a Girl Scout troop leader for more than three decades. She even took a demotion – voluntarily – later in her career to take a position that would allow her to open the door for other women in the math, science and engineering fields at NASA.

She retired from Langley in 1985 and passed away in 2005.

The reception to honor Ms. Jackson will be held at the USW Local 8888 union hall, 4306 Huntington Blvd., Newport News, VA, beginning at 5 p.m.

Click here to see what categories ‘Hidden Figures’ has been nominated for.