Hidden figures : the untold true story of four African-American women who helped launch our nation into space

Author

Margot Lee Shetterly

Call Number

• J 629.4 LEE (CEN, OSH)

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Edition

First edition.

Publication Information

New York, NY : Harper, [2016]

Physical Description

231 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Audience

Ages 8-12.

Summary

Before John Glenn orbited the earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South's segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America's aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam's call, moving to Hampton Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Even as Virginia's Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley's all-black "West Computing" group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens.

Contents

• Setting the Scene
• A Door Opens
• Mobilization
• A New Beginning
• The Double V
• The "Colored" Computers
• War Birds
• The Duration
• Breaking Barriers
• No Limits
• The Area Rule
• An Exceptional Mind
• Turbulence
• Progress
• Young, Gifted, and Black
• What a Difference a Day Makes
• Writing the Textbook on Space
• With All Deliberate Speed
• Model Behavior
• Degrees of Freedom
• Out of the Past, the Future
• America Is for Everybody
• One Small Step.