Hidden Figures

This chapter returns to Dorothy’s work at Langley and what happened after the war ended. She and Howard had two more children after she moved to Newport News, but she returned to work as soon as possible after giving birth each time. Dorothy’s colleagues now became like extended family, and they did more together socially. The large loss of jobs predicted with the end of the war never came; only a small reduction in the workforce took place, mostly from women who decided to move on to raise a family.

The country in the postwar period set its sights on new goals, such as breaking the sound barrier, and Langley played an integral part in this. Shetterly writes that “black or white, east or west, single or married, mothers or childless, women were now a fundamental part of the aeronautical research process” (81), but they still hit a glass ceiling when it came to becoming engineers. Men were hired right out of college and mentored by male engineers as they began their careers, but female computers with years of experience were still excluded. New opportunities came in other areas, however. The East Computing area—the white counterpart to West Computing, where Dorothy worked—was closed in 1947, and the work was folded into Dorothy’s area. When two white supervisors left in succession, Dorothy became the first Black woman to lead West Computing. 

The third main character, Mary, is introduced in Chapter 10. Along with Mary’s background, Shetterly provides more about the history of Hampton, Virginia, because Mary was the only one of the three who was a Hampton native. Mary was always deeply committed to community service in addition to education. After a year of teaching math, following graduation from Hampton Institute, she began working at the United Service Organizations (USO), which provided cultural programs for service members. She was also active in her church and a leader in the Girl Scouts. In the early 1950s, she took a job at Langley, moving quickly from secretarial work to one of the computers under Dorothy.

Shetterly also describes the effects of the Korean War and McCarthyism on Langley. The war led to more hiring, just as World War II had, and an effort to master the intricacies of flying at and beyond the speed of sound. This had different aerodynamic effects on an airplane, so the engineers and computers worked to research and understand the phenomena involved. McCarthyism was the term used for Senator Joseph McCarthy’s investigations into alleged communist activity in the federal government and American society. This had a chilling effect on anyone involved with a group deemed questionable, including civil rights groups. However, another presidential executive order (number 9980, issued by Truman), worked to ensure that all departments of the federal government followed fair employment practices, without discrimination by race or other factors. 

This chapter tells the story of how Mary began to rise through the ranks at Langley. One day, Dorothy assigned her to a project on the east side of the campus, a work area Mary was not very familiar with. When she asked some white colleagues where the (segregated) bathroom was, she was met with nervous laughter. They didn’t know and she felt humiliated. As Shetterly writes, in that moment “Mary had been demoted from professional mathematician to a second-class human being” (108).

Still fuming from the episode, Mary ran into an engineer named Kazimierz (“Kaz”) Czarnecki on her way back to West Computing, and she vented her spleen about it. His response was, “Why don’t you come work for me?” (110). She did, taking up work with Kaz in one of the wind tunnels. Not long afterward, she was given something to work on by the boss three levels above Kaz, John Becker. She completed the job according to his instructions, but something seemed off to him and he questioned her calculations. She didn’t. They went over them together, and it turned out the numbers Becker gave her were wrong to begin with. He apologized, and she earned a reputation for being both whip smart and self-assured.

Katherine came to Langley through a stroke of luck. At a family wedding, she learned from her brother-in-law about opportunities for mathematicians. He lived in Newsome Park and knew Dorothy. Katherine and her husband decided to go for it, and she was hired to begin in the summer of 1953. After two weeks of routine training, she was selected to work on her first project with engineers. Her first interaction in the new environment was to sit down next to a white engineer, only to see him immediately rise and walk away without acknowledging her. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, but was not one to read into things or dwell on perceived slights. She went ahead and focused on her work, and in the end they became fast friends. 

This chapter continues Katherine’s story, as her work progresses and she faces a devastating personal loss. She remained with her first project, in the Flight Research Division, for six months, but technically Dorothy in West Computing was still responsible for her. Dorothy spoke with Katherine’s supervisor, arguing that he needed to return Katherine to West Computing or make her a regular employee of his division with the accompanying raise that entailed. He chose for her to stay and give her the promotion, as her knowledge of higher-level math was too valuable to pass up.

Katherine loved her job and it fit her like a glove. She got to use her math skills to solve interesting problems, like the length of time that turbulence caused by the wake of a jet could affect the flight of a plane passing through it (one of her first projects). She loved her colleagues and got along well with them, as they fully accepted her to the team. As Shetterly writes, “There was nothing they liked more than brains, and they could see that Katherine Goble had them in abundance. As much as anything, they responded to her exuberance for the work” (130).

Katherine and her husband bought a house of their own after two years in Newsome Park. They moved in 1955, the same year he started having headaches and fevers. Doctors discovered an inoperable brain tumor, and he died in late 1956. At age 38, Katherine became a single mother to her three young daughters.