Weekly Reader: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win The Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly; A Wonderful True Story of A Group of Brilliant Trailblazing African-American Women

Weekly Reader: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win The Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly; A Wonderful True Story of A Group of Brilliant Trailblazing African-American Women


By Julie Sara Porter


Bookworm Reviews





Without the brilliant minds of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and the other African-American female mathematicians in the West Computer division of NASA, it's very doubtful that the Americans would have made it out of Earth's lowest hemisphere let alone into Space and ultimately the Moon.


Margot Lee Shetterly’s best selling biography, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win The Space Race which became the Academy Award nominated film Hidden Figures pays these women a debt long owed. They are written to be courageous, brilliant women who were able to break through racial and gender barriers and contribute to these important moments in American history.





The exciting opportunities for these women came in the late ‘30’s when NASA was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) when studying airplanes was the goal. The superiors realized that there were plenty of female mathematicians that they could recruit to create trajectories and figures for the planes to travel. These women were called computers as they computed these large sums in their heads and provided solutions based on the data they used. Interestingly enough this assumption that women would be the best at calculating these figures runs contrary to the modern offensive stereotype that women and girls can't “do math and science,” a stereotype that many in the STEM fields have been trying to counter. The careers of the women in this book should serve as an inspiration for any girl or woman to aspire to become mathematicians and engineers themselves.





The other door that opened was in 1941 when after prodding by A. Philip Randolph, the head of the largest black labor union, the Roosevelt Administration declared Executive Order 8802 ordering the desegregation of the defense industry and Executive Order 9346 the Fair Employment Practices Committee to monitor economic inclusion. All this meant that African-Americans were permitted to work in defense projects to help fight for their country.





One of the first recruits was Dorothy Vaughan, a former math teacher. Even though she and the other African-American female recruits were segregated to the west side of the Langley offices thereby dubbed the “West Computers,” Vaughan was able to compute her figures accurately. She was also able to take charge of the other computers so that when their former supervisor suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be institutionalized, Vaughan seamlessly stepped in to take her place as the Chief Supervisor of the West Computer division.


Vaughan also proved to be adaptable to changing circumstances. When NACA transformed into NASA and the focus changed to space exploration, Vaughan studied the potential for rocket travel. Then when the human computers changed over to electronic computing, Vaughan spent some time in night school studying computer programming and languages to stay ahead of her field.





Another brilliant woman in this group was Mary Jackson. She learned the benefit of making powerful alliances. A Girl Scout troop leader and mother who always tried to give the children in her neighborhood pride in themselves and their race, Jackson was derided by the white engineers. After one particular incident, she stormed off in fury and told her troubles to Kazmierz Czarnecki, the assistant section head of the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel. Czarnecki invited Jackson to work with him. Jackson earned her position by demonstrating her engineering skills.


She also was able to rise from the title of “mathematician” to “engineer”, a feat rarely accomplished by any of the woman working at Langley let alone the African-American women. The “Engineer” title meant more money, prestige, and recognition for Jackson's services.





By far the most famous of the West Computers was Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson. She balanced her role as a widowed mother of three, a romance with 2nd Lt. Jim Johnson, and her work as a mathematician and West Computer. Her research into analytic geometry impressed many of the white male engineers who promoted her to work directly under them. She also showed extraordinary persistence such as continuing to ask her supervisors if she could attend meetings to the point where they allowed her to attend them just so she would stop asking. Another sign of her intelligence and persistence was in receiving credit for her research. When Ted Skopinski transferred to Houston, his former supervisor ordered him to finish his research. He suggested that Johnson complete the research since “she did most of it anyway.” Not only did Johnson finish the research, but she received credit and authorship, a feat not accomplished by many other women in her field.


Johnson also had a reputation for accuracy in her calculations so much so that she was willing to argue with others if she discovered a flaw in the numbers. She calculated the trajectory for Alan Shepard's flight into.space.


Her reputation for genius and accurate calculations reached the ears of astronaut, John Glenn, who planned to orbit Earth. He asked for her specifically and said that he would not fly unless Johnson verified the calculations. After Glen’s historic flight, Johnson also contributed calculations for future space flights such as Apollo 11’s trip to the Moon.





Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson showed that with intelligence, courage, and persistence racial and gender barriers can not only be broken. They can be shattered beyond repair and anyone can be recognized for their achievements, no matter their race or gender.