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School principal Dr. Tammara M. Hanna told ABC News Johnson's name was chosen out of more than 300 name suggestions.

\"Our school had been named in the 1960s when Fairfax County named all middle schools after literary figures,\" Hanna said. \"After six months of community engagement and receiving over 300 names suggestions, we thought it was important to find a name that reflected the values and beliefs of our diverse school and community.  We found great enthusiasm in selecting Katherine Johnson to be our new namesake.\"

\"As our City of Fairfax Superintendent Dr. Phyllis Pajardo reminded us at the ceremony, 'Names matter, names inspire, and names show students that they are valued,\" Hanna added.

\"PHOTO:
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: NASA space scientist, and mathematician Katherine Johnson poses for a portrait at her desk with an adding machine and a "Celestial Training device" at NASA Langley Research Center in 1962 in Hampton, Va.
>

Johnson's story was portrayed on the big screen in the 2016 film \"Hidden Figures\" starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe.

Johnson was hired by NASA in 1953 and calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, before electronic computers were used.

When astronaut John Glenn was preparing for his mission that would make him the first American to orbit the Earth, he requested Johnson personally recheck the calculations made by the new electronic computers.

\"PHOTO:
Alex Wong/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former NASA mathematician Katherine G. Johnson during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C., Nov. 24, 2015.
>

President Barack Obama presented Johnson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Former president Donald Trump signed the \"Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act\" in 2019 which awarded Congressional gold medals, the highest civilian award in the United States, to Johnson and Dr. Christine Darden and posthumous medals to Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. \u2028

In April, Fairfax County public schools became the first in the nation to rename a high school in honor of John R. Lewis, the late civil rights icon and congressman.

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