Hidden Figures

This chapter tells the story of Sputnik, the satellite that the Soviet Union launched in October 1957, which would lead to the creation of NASA and greatly influence the careers of the women at Langley. It was a moment that shocked the United States, as it indicated that the nation’s Cold War rival gained the upper hand in flight. This had direct consequences for national security because military leaders worried that the Soviets could produce better missiles with which to launch nuclear weapons.

Immediately, the hand-wringing and second-guessing began in America, as people wondered how they allowed their rival to best them. Many African Americans had an answer: segregation. They argued that excluding a large swath of the population from first-class education denied the chance for highly skilled Black students to contribute their talents to the country. This played out that very fall in the national media as Black students attempted to integrate Little Rock High School in Arkansas, resulting in a violent backlash by white members of the community.

Shetterly tells of these events through the eyes of the fourth main character, Christine Mann, a high school senior in the fall of 1957, in North Carolina. Shetterly describes her family and educational background, which was similar to those of Dorothy, Katherine, and Mary. Christine graduated as valedictorian of her high school and went to college at Hampton Institute. From there, she was destined to one day join the three older women at Langley.

Chapter 16 describes the effects that Sputnik had on Langley, which were considerable. Shetterly explains that the US was not quite as behind the Soviets as it appeared. Work began on its own satellite, which was planned for a launch during the International Geophysical Year, which ran from mid-1957 through 1958. The engineers at Langley, who did so much over the years to perfect aerodynamics, now reversed course in a way for the space program. Aerodynamics helped provide the best exit from the Earth’s atmosphere, but a less aerodynamic vehicle actually helped disperse the intense heat that would build up on its body during reentry. This and many other concerns were now the focus at Langley as politicians clamored to overtake the Soviets.

Increasingly, the future of work at Langley relied on specialists. As Shetterly puts it, “As the answers to the fundamental problems of flight became clearer, the next level of questioning required finer, more acute knowledge, making the idea of a central computing pool—generalists with mechanical calculating machines, capable of handling any type of overflow work—redundant” (165). Most of Dorothy’s original colleagues moved on to work with engineers, which was the avenue for moving up, but she remained at West Computing for 15 years. With Sputnik pushing space flight to the forefront of aeronautics, the NACA was reorganized in 1958 into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). That same year, West Computing was closed, officially ending both segregation at Langley and Dorothy’s managerial role there, as she returned to the ranks of general computers.

This short chapter details Katherine’s determination and efforts to attend lectures and editorial meetings in which early research was discussed. Shetterly highlights Katherine’s knowledge and curiosity: She had strong experience, she read everything she could get her hands on, and she incessantly asked questions of her colleagues. The meetings, however, were where the action was in terms of the space program. It was simply antiquated and rigid tradition that prevented her from attending, as she was told that women didn’t attend meetings. She replied, “Is there a law against it?” and kept at it (179). Finally, her persistence paid off and she was allowed to attend. This set her up for a front-row seat in the space program as it quickly developed in the 1960s.

Shetterly focuses on the importance of the years 1958 and 1959 in this chapter. Katherine met a man at her church choir who would become her second husband. James Johnson moved to Hampton as a teen, joined the military and spent time in Korea, and then returned to Hampton to work as a postal carrier. The two hit it off and they married in 1959. Katherine took his name and would be known professionally as Katherine Johnson for the remainder of her career.

The year 1958 was also an important one professionally for Katherine. NASA was established in October, shifting the focus to the future with space travel. Katherine’s division was responsible for calculating the trajectory of spacecraft for both suborbital and orbital missions. The latter was much more complex, and Katherine took on the challenge of figuring it out, saying to an engineer in her group, “Tell me where you want the man to land, and I’ll tell you where to send him up” (190). She finished the report on the project the day after Thanksgiving in 1959, and after ten months of inner debate and review, it was published—the first report to come out of her division by a woman.

Here the narrative shifts to Mary and her professional and community involvement. She went out of her way to not just be involved herself but also to expand others’ opportunities. She (along with Katherine) was an active member of a professional organization, called National Technical Association, for African American scientists and engineers. She hosted students from Hampton Institute and the city’s public schools to tour Langley, so they could see firsthand what a career in science was like. In 1962, she enlisted the help of a white female colleague, also an engineer, to participate in a career panel for Black girls in junior high school.

In her community, Mary continued to be involved with the Girl Scouts, and worked to overcome the segregated administrative council in the Scouts. When she had a chance to select someone for a national meeting in Wyoming one year, she nominated and worked to send her African American assistant Janice. Mary thought of everything, it seemed. Because Janice never traveled beyond flat, coastal Virginia, Mary arranged for a white colleague—a former East Computer—to take Janice hiking in the mountains of interior Virginia, in preparation for hikes out West.