The achievements of Black professionals are not always recognized, but the contributions of some very talented Black software engineers are impossible to ignore. Their work has been highly valuable to the field of software engineering. Read on to discover more about famous Black computer programmers and learn their stories.

Black Software Engineers: The Current Landscape

Black software engineers are historically an underrepresented group in the field of software engineering, and the industry still lacks diversity, with white software engineers making up over 52% of the U.S. workforce. Black software engineers, on the other hand, make up less than 5%.

The number is even lower for Black female software engineers. The National Centre for Women & Information Technology estimates that in 2022, only 3% of all women working in technology were black.

But don’t let the small percentage of Black software engineers fool you. Many famous Black software engineers have made significant contributions to the field.

Learn More: 5 Things I Learned as a Black Woman in Tech

Famous Black Software Engineers Throughout History

From the past through the present, Black engineers have been partly responsible for shaping technology and the field of software engineering as we know it. Although their contributions may go unnoticed, we see and use their work every day. Here are just a few famous black software engineers who made a difference in the field.

1. Mary Jackson

Mary Jackson was the first Black female engineer at NASA, and you might recognize her as the subject from the movie Hidden Figures. Jackson began working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1951, and she was a member of NACA’s West Area Computing Unit, the West Computers. This unit consisted of Black female mathematicians. The women gathered information that was crucial to the early development of the United States’ space program.

Her career at NASA began when she was hired in 1958. During her nearly two-decade-long engineering career at NASA, she wrote or co-wrote a large number of research studies. The majority of these studies examined the behavior of the boundary layer of air around airplanes. Jackson retired from NASA in 1986 but continued to work in the field until she died in 2005.

2. Evelyn Boyd Granville

Evelyn Boyd Granville was a pioneer for women of color in computer programming. She was the second Black woman to receive a Ph.D. from an American university — Yale.

When Granville finished her doctorate in mathematics and astronomy, she began contributing to various groundbreaking initiatives. At IBM, she worked on the first commercially available computer as well as the first artificial satellite, the first manned space station (Project Mercury), and the first manned lunar landing (Project Apollo). Evelyn returned to the classroom in 1967 to teach and stayed until retirement.

Granville managed to make a name for herself, despite the challenges she faced as a Black woman during her time. She received various honors for work such as the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal (the highest honor bestowed by the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association), an honorary degree from Spelman College, and a position on the Mathematically Gifted & Black Black History Month Honoree list.

3. Roy Clay Sr.

Roy Clay Sr. was a Black man who helped create the history of Silicon Valley and Hewlett-Packard (HP). He’s been penned as the Grandfather of Silicon Valley” and became HP’s pioneer in software.

Clary was born in 1929 in Missouri