Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly

Langley West Computers

Other people, places and events

Dorothy Vaughn 1929 – 1931 – waitress 1931 – math teacher 1943 – laundress 1943 – Mathematician Grade P-1 1949 – Head Computer, West Computing 1951 – became head of unit 1958 – became computer programmer Katherine Coleman Gable Johnson 1953 – to Langley 1958 -  invited to editorial meetings of Guidance Control Bureau of Flight Research Division 1960 – published first report by female 1962 – checked numbers for John Glenn’s flight Mary Jackson 1951 – to Langley 1956 – started engineering classes 1960 – built soap-box derby car with son, Levi 1962 – tested Apollo capsule Miriam Mann Kept taking table sign, “Colored Computers” 1962 – worked on rendezvous research for Apollo

Virginia Senator Harry Byrd Tied fear of communism to fear of integration Massive Resistance in 1950s Asa Philip Randolph Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. William Clayton – Katherine Johnson’s mentor at West Virginia State College Hampton Roads, VA Kazimierz Czarnecki – Mary Jackson’s mentor 1958 – 1964 – Virginia closed public schools to avoid segregation in three cities Star Trek – set in 2260s - multinational, multiracial, mixed-gender crew Lieutenant Uhura

 For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers refer to paperback edition.

1. According to the author, the racial problems in America provided the Soviet Union with “one of the most effective propaganda weapons in their arsenal” (page 104).  Why didn’t this seem to have any effect on improving the racial tension in our country?
2. Discuss the contradiction of restaurants who would not serve a black person but would serve Germans from the prisoner-of-was camp in Newport News (page 33).    How did people justify hating the Germans for what they did to the Jewish people while doing the same thing to the colored citizens in America (page 33)?
3. How do you think Senator Harry Byrd would be regarded today?  Do you think his family is proud of his legacy?
4. The author wrote that, “The NACA nuts always thought they had a better way to do anything – everything – and didn’t hesitate to tell the locals so” (page 53). The citizens of the town felt that, “the good Lord didn’t always see fit to give book sense and common sense to the same individual” (pages 53 & 54).  Which to you think is more important, book sense or common sense?
5. The black engineers experienced more prejudice from the blue-collar workers in town than they did from their peers at Langley (page 146).  Why do you think this was so?
6. In the late 1950s, when the US was lagging behind Russia in missiles, black newspapers linked “America’s inadequacy in space to the dreadful conditions facing many black students in the South” (page 152).  Did you think this was fair?
7. Mary Jackson thought that “life was a long process of raising one’s expectations” (page 98).  On the other hand, the colored women felt that “they had to get over the high hurdle of low expectations” (page 181).  How did the women juggle these two different perspectives?
8. Why were the women featured in the book so driven to succeed in their fields?
9. What did you learn from this book?

*****
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