Chapters One & Two

Summary: Chapter One: A Door Opens

In 1938, as war in Europe seems increasingly likely, President Roosevelt challenges
America’s aircraft industry to dramatically increase its output. By 1940, U.S. aircraft
production far exceeds that of the Germany or Japan. Government oversight and
support are provided by NACA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.
Langley Field in Hampton, Virginia, is home to Langley Memorial Aeronautical
Laboratory, a NACA facility. The lab is rapidly expanding its capacity to test new aircraft
designs and suggest improvements to manufacturers. New physical facilities are
constantly being built, and Melvin Butler, the head of personnel, has to hire more and
more staff. To support the engineers, he needs “computers”—human mathematicians
who can analyze the numerical data from wind tunnel tests. In the past few years, this
has become a job for women. They have proven to be good at the work, and because
their pay is less than men’s, Langley saves money.

By 1943, however, Butler is struggling to hire enough women calculators. Two years
earlier, a threatened strike by the railroad porters’ union, led by A. Philip Randolph,
prompted Roosevelt to sign two executive orders to desegregate the defense industry.
Now, Butler is seeing increasing numbers of applications from Black women wanting to
work as mathematicians. We don’t know what Butler may think privately about race, but
whatever those views are, he respects competence and needs all the help he can get.
Given the social rules of the time, a racially integrated workplace is not possible. In a
just-completed building, Butler quietly sets up a segregated workspace for the Black
women.

Summary: Chapter Two: Mobilization

By the summer of 1943, American troops have been fighting in World War II for a year
and a half. Camp Pickett, thirty miles from Farmville, Virginia, is one of many training
centers that Black and white soldiers pass through before embarking for Europe.
Dorothy Vaughan, a Black mother of four, is working in the camp laundry. The work is
hard, and the pay, 40 cents per hour, is low for war workers. However, that wage is
more than what Dorothy earns as a high school math teacher during the rest of the year.

Dorothy was born in 1910. A gifted student, she skipped two grades on the way to
becoming high school valedictorian. She studied math in college, and a professor
recommended she go on to graduate school. The Great Depression had begun,
however, and so, to help support her parents, she instead became a math teacher. By
1943, she had a family of her own and was teaching at Farmville’s Negro high school. In
the spring, she applied for the Camp Pickett job, to earn extra money that would
someday help to pay for her children’s college educations. However, Dorothy felt
inspired by a newspaper article about Black women at Hampton Institute, near the
Langley facility, studying to be engineers. When she saw a notice advertising jobs for
women with knowledge of mathematics to work at Langley, she filled out an application
for that job, too.
Analysis: Chapters One & Two
The reductive language of the time appears throughout Hidden Figures, and it mirrors
the reductive manner in which society views women of color. Shetterly uses words like
“Negro,” “Colored,” and “Indian” in the narrative in order to stay true to the era and to
convey societal norms in the United States in the 1940s through the 1960s. These
norms also included referring to grown women as “girls,” and while it was not
uncommon for people to refer to white women as “girls” as well, they might also refer to
white women of a certain status by the genteel title “ladies.” The fact that the Black
women in the book remain “girls” in the eyes of their white peers, despite their advanced
education and professional responsibilities, illustrates that society did not see these
women as deserving of equal status regardless of their accomplishments.
Referring to the women as “computers” instead of giving them a proper title echoes the
same reductive language as referring to them as girls. While actual computers were in
their infancy during the years that the book details, the employees of NACA and NASA
would have had more exposure to the concept of computing machines than the average
citizen of that time. Referring to the women as “computers” allows their superiors to
simultaneously invest in the accuracy of the women’s computations while viewing them
as less than human. Computers compute and they do so reliably, but they do not make
decisions, inspire a team, or feel human emotions. Equating the women to computers is
a leap in logic that allows others to view them as being separate from and inherently
unequal to them.

Shetterly establishes the theme of overcoming racism and sexism when the
protagonists obtain positions that challenge society’s preconceived notions of what
Black women can achieve. The era following World War II was a period when men held
the vast majority of positions of power in the United States and the prevailing attitude
was that African Americans were unfit for highly skilled jobs. Men in charge of hiring did
not look beyond race, color, and gender in order to find the most qualified candidates to
fill open positions. The fact that the women are successful in obtaining these
sought-after positions foreshadows the obstacles that they will overcome, and the
knowledge that their work will have a lasting impact on military technology highlights
how short-sighted these hiring practices were.

Dorothy’s innate intelligence contributes to her success in achieving her educational

goals, but it is her pragmatism and perseverance that allow her to advance
professionally. Dorothy displays academic aptitude and advanced skills from a young
age, but the strong work ethic that she brings to jobs that are below her skill set and pay
grade allow her to recognize opportunities when they arise and prepare her for the
challenges ahead. The job at Langley is just such an opportunity and, when Dorothy
applies for it, she exhibits the same pragmatism that Melvin does when he adjusts his
hiring practices to accommodate more Black women.

Farmville’s Negro high school is a symbol of hope. Despite limited opportunities for
Black students, their parents’ decision to send their children to high school illustrates
that they are nonetheless optimistic about their children's futures. Just as Dorothy
initially became a teacher in order to support her parents, the students at the school are
also old enough to work and have the ability to contribute to their families’ income. The
confidence that these parents show in sending their children to high school and
sacrificing current opportunities for financial gain to secure a brighter future for their
children signifies that they believe a better future is possible.

Chapters Three & Four

Summary: Chapter Three: Past Is Prologue
At the end of the summer of 1943, Dorothy returns to Farmville to teach. She tutors
struggling students after school and also directs the choir. Then a letter from Langley
arrives, offering her a position through the end of the war. She accepts and leaves for
Langley in November. She will be living too far away from her family to come home on
weekends. Her husband, Howard, is a bellman at luxury hotels. He is also often away
from Farmville, because he travels to where the seasonal work is: Florida in the winter,
Vermont and New York in the summer. Grandparents, and dozens of aunts and uncles,
look after the children when Howard and Dorothy cannot.

The previous year, Howard’s work took him to the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur
Springs, West Virginia. There, the Vaughans became friends with the family of Joshua
Coleman, an older man who shared bellman duties with Howard at the Greenbrier front
desk. Joshua’s youngest daughter, Katherine, was a decade younger than Dorothy, but
her early life followed a similar path: Katherine was smart enough to skip grades in
school, she was very good at math, and she eventually passed up a chance at a
graduate degree in order to raise a family. She would eventually follow Dorothy to
Langley.

Summary: Chapter Four: The Double V

The harbor and surrounding land known as Hampton Roads includes the town of
Hampton, the nearby city of Newport News, and several other cities and towns. At the
time of Dorothy’s arrival, the area has been transformed. It was once forests and
farmland. Now it is a major center of war-related industry. Federally funded housing
developments are built, using prefabricated homes, for some of the rapidly growing
civilian population. A Newport News development called Newsome Park is for Black
men and women. Dorothy rents a room there from a Black couple in their sixties, who
own a grocery store and have a large enough home to take in boarders.

Crowded living conditions lead to friction between Black citizens and white
citizens sharing public spaces and public transportation. Hampton Roads has mostly
avoided major outbreaks of violence, but Black Americans across the country are bitter.
They were promised equality after the Civil War, and Woodrow Wilson repeated the
promise during World War I. Yet Black men and women continue to experience what
W.E.B. Du Bois called “double consciousness.” They are expected to join in the fight
against the racist Nazi regime in Europe, but they are expected to endure racism at
home without resisting. Black Americans want to know what they are fighting for. They
have answered their country’s call after Pearl Harbor, but they continue to hope and
demand that their service will be justly rewarded. A letter to the Pittsburgh Courier, a
newspaper for Black readers, urges Black Americans to adopt the double V for a double
victory: victory over enemies both abroad and at home.
Analysis: Chapters Three & Four
Dorothy’s willingness to sacrifice time with her children for her career highlights her
belief that professional success is a crucial component of creating a better future for
them. Just as the parents of her students sacrifice financial gain in the present because
they have faith that education will provide their children with a better life, Dorothy tutors
them after school because she believes the same thing. Her decision to pursue the job
at Langley is a difficult one because it is the first time that she will be away from her
children, but she does so nonetheless as she believes that they too will benefit from her
success.

The ambitious goals that Howard and Dorothy set for themselves keep them physically
and emotionally apart, but the fact that the two are able to endure the stress it places on
their relationship illustrates their respect for one another’s ambitions. They are both
focused and determined to actualize their goals, and certain that achieving those goals
will secure a better life for their family. Their strength and determination foreshadow that
they will adapt to this new chapter in their life because they place equal value on the
importance of their own self-worth and the well-being of the family they have built
together.

Shetterly’s use of the past as prologue highlights the importance of family and
community. When the Vaughan’s chance friendship with Joshua Coleman eventually
leads Katherine to follow Dorothy to Langley, it illustrates how necessary social
connections can be for professional advancement. Langley offers Katherine a chance to
move beyond the limited choices available to Black women at the time, and having
another Black female friend working at such an aspirational place provides her with an
opportunity that many of her peers cannot access. Dorothy’s ability to work at Langley is
due in large part to the care that her extended family provides for her children in her
absence, and their willingness to provide this care illustrates the strength of their familial
bond.

The physical transformation of the area surrounding the town of Hampton runs parallel
to the path that many African Americans took after slavery ended. Just as Black men
advance beyond their historic roles as agricultural workers in order to serve in the
military, women like Dorothy may advance beyond doing domestic labor as long as their
work serves the war effort. Even in this advanced, industry-focused community, the
Black people who support it must live in segregated housing. It is clear from the hasty
way in which city planners construct these new housing developments that they do not
expect Black citizens to remain in the community once their work is no longer vital to
military success.
The introduction of the double V foreshadows the personal victories that the book’s
protagonists will achieve as well as the societal changes that will come as a result of the
Civil Rights Movement. The journey that Black Americans take from roles in agriculture
to jobs in industry and back again contributes to the internal conflict, or "double
consciousness," that they endure. The bitterness resulting from the racial divisions and
double consciousness that are a part of daily life will eventually lead Black men and
women to foment the Civil Rights Movement. Just as Dorothy and her peers will fight for
better conditions at Langley, Black people across America will fight for a more just
society.

Chapters Five–Seven
Summary: Chapter Five: Manifest Destiny
The workspace Melvin Butler sets up for the Black women is in Langley’s West Area.
Some of the women working there were featured in the newspaper article that inspired
Dorothy. The Hampton Institute, where the women studied, continues to supply human
computers to Langley. The Institute’s head, Malcolm MacLean, is determined that his
Black graduates will contribute to the war effort. His hosting of racially mixed social
events offends some whites. Langley’s director, Henry Reid, is more cautious, but
Margery Hannah, the white head of West Computing, is openly progressive. Like
MacLean, she treats Black men and women as equals and sometimes socializes with
them.

The white women computers work in an East Area building. All workers eat lunch in the
same cafeteria, but the Black women are assigned a separate table, with a sign:
COLORED COMPUTERS. The white engineers that the women work with, especially
the engineers from northern and western states, have a pragmatic attitude about
working with the Black computers. Whatever the men’s views about social mixing, they
value good work and maintain cordial relationships with the women. The Black
computers find the working environment mostly pleasant. A woman named Miriam
Mann, however, removes the insulting cafeteria sign. She continues removing
replacement signs until they stop appearing. A small battle has been won.

Summary: Chapter Six: War Birds

In 1944, Black Americans take pride in the exploits of the Black aviators known as the
Tuskegee airmen. Their plane, the P-51 Mustang, is praised for its reliability and its
performance in aerial combat. The development research for the Mustang was done at
Langley, but workers there are constantly reminded not to talk about their jobs in public
or even at home. If the people in town regard some of Langley’s engineers as “weirdos,”
that is fine, so long as the townspeople do not learn details of what the weirdos actually
do.

Langley conducts both actual flight tests of aircraft prototypes, in “free air,” and wind
tunnel tests of models, in “compressed air.” The Sixteen-Foot High Speed Tunnel looms
above the buildings of the West Area. Dorothy and the other computers study
engineering physics and aerodynamics, to understand the calculations they are
performing. All of the testing, plus the purely theoretical work of the “no-air” engineers,
goes toward designing new or improved fighter, cargo, and bomber aircraft. When
B-29s bomb Japan, Henry Reid tells the lab’s employees, from the engineers down to
the cleaning staff, that they all had a part in the mission. Dorothy is helping to make a
difference in the war’s outcome.

Summary: Chapter Seven: The Duration

Newsome Park, like other developments built for workers needed in the war effort, is a
pleasant place to live. Residents enjoy access to shops of all kinds, and home delivery
of coal, milk, and other goods. In the summer of 1944, Dorothy signs a lease for an
apartment near an elementary school and brings her children to live with her. She has
had enough of long drives for occasional, too-short visits to see them. The arrangement
will add to the growing emotional and physical separation between her and Howard.

In August of 1945, the war ends. Everywhere in America, the streets fill with people
celebrating. Soon, however, reality sets in: with industry returning to peacetime
production levels and soldiers returning home, many workers, especially women, will
lose their jobs. Some women will be happy to return to domestic life, but others will not.
The hard-won gains of Black workers are in danger of slipping away. There is also the
possibility that developments like Newsome Park will be demolished. All of these
uncertainties made Dorothy’s decision to commit to an apartment lease a risky wager.
However, she is determined to settle in and make Newport News her home. She and
Miriam Mann grow close, and their families spend a good deal of time together. Howard
joins her when his work and travel allow it.

Analysis: Chapters Five–Seven

The cordial way that some of the engineers treat their Black female colleagues
foreshadows the possibility that positive changes will come. While their approach may
be born of the same pragmatism that led to the changes in hiring practices that brought
the women to Langley, the engineers do recognize and respect the women’s
contributions. The engineers’ efforts to make the work environment a less toxic one is a
stark contrast to those who have obvious racist tendencies and continue to replace the
offensive sign in the cafeteria. When the sign ultimately disappears for good, it is
another harbinger of the positive changes to follow.

The incidents surrounding the “COLORED COMPUTERS” sign in the cafeteria highlight
the importance of language in a public forum. Its wording is yet another attempt to
dehumanize the women required to sit at that table, and the capital letters scream for
attention from both the women and their white colleagues. The sign provokes the same
sort of tension seen when Black individuals and white individuals encounter each other
in the shared public spaces outside of Langley. It is never clear who places and
replaces the sign, which suggests that that person might not be so bold as to disrespect
the women to their faces. When Shetterly does name Miriam Mann as the one who
removed the signs, however, it illustrates the importance of her victory over this unjust
language and the need for transparency to bring about social change in public.

The fact that the townspeople refer to Langley personnel as “weirdos” shows that
despite the racial, social, and educational divisions at Langley, all of its staffers are
somehow separate from society as a whole. Because everyone on the team comes
from a different geographical location, their perspectives on racial prejudice vary from
one another. This is a stark contrast to the townspeople who have likely spent their
entire lives in the same area and adhere to more of a group-think mentality with regard
to racial issues. Prior to the war, the region was largely agricultural, and its new
emphasis on advanced technology requires new ways of thinking. The ability of the
team at Langley to find strength in their differences and create a functional work
environment underscores the possibilities of this new thinking, which sets them apart
from the less socially and racially diverse townspeople.

Dorothy’s decision to double-down on her investment in her family’s future at all costs
highlights the hope, enthusiasm, and confidence that the end of the war symbolizes.
The postwar world offers a new beginning, and her confidence that the social and
economic improvements that came about during wartime will continue echoes the
optimistic mood of many Americans during that time. Dorothy's choice to commit to an
apartment is risky, but her decision to put down roots in an area with an uncertain future
and a problematic stance on racism is a clear indication of her confidence that positive
changes are on the horizon.

Chapters Eight–Eleven
Summary: Chapter Eight: Those Who Move Forward
Katherine Coleman was born and raised in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Race
relations there were somewhat less tense than in Virginia. Katherine’s father worked at
the Greenbrier, where he would one day meet Dorothy’s husband. Katherine also
sometimes worked at the resort, as a maid and later as a store clerk. She impressed
guests and management with her intelligence and charm. Katherine inherited her
father’s unusual gift for mathematics and was academically so talented that she skipped
from second grade to fifth. By age fifteen, she was attending West Virginia State
College. William Schieffelin Claytor, a brilliant, demanding professor, created advanced
classes specially for her and urged her to go to graduate school.

After her 1937 graduation, however, Katherine took a teaching job in Marion, Virginia.
There she met Jimmy Goble, a chemistry teacher. They married but kept their marriage
quiet, because schools did not generally hire married women. Two years later,
Katherine took a better-paying job in Morgantown, West Virginia. The next spring, she
was asked to be one of three Black students to integrate West Virginia University by
attending its graduate school. She attended the summer session, but she left the
program when she became pregnant. She returned to the classroom back in Marion, in
1944, when Jimmy came down with an illness, and his principal offered her the job as
Jimmy’s replacement.

Summary: Chapter Nine: Breaking Barriers

Starting in 1945, Dorothy and Howard Vaughan are able to spend a little more time
together. By 1947, they have six children. Dorothy and the children are part of a tightly
knit group of families that regularly picnic together at an all-Black resort on the James
River. Meanwhile, the end of the war has turned out to have only minor economic
consequences for Hampton Roads. The area has become a permanent home to
multiple military bases and a great deal of military-related industry. Langley has stayed
busy, shifting its focus from war-related research to new challenges, such as breaking
the sound barrier. Dorothy’s job became permanent in 1946, and she is now one of
West Computing’s three shift supervisors, reporting directly to Margery Hannah, the
white section head. Elsewhere at Langley, however, changes are underway. Women in
East Computing have begun to leave for jobs elsewhere. Some of them go to work
directly for one of Langley’s specialized engineering sections. In 1947, East Computing
is disbanded. All of its open assignments are shifted to West Computing.

The Black West Area women are more limited in their employment options, but two of
them break new ground. Another shift supervisor, known for the depth of her
mathematical insight, is hired by the Stability Analysis group. Its engineers are known
for their progressive attitudes. The other notable promotion occurs when Margery
Hannah transfers out: her Black assistant, Blanche Sponsler, is made section head. In
early 1949, however, Blanche suffers a mental breakdown while preparing for a
meeting. She is hospitalized, and Dorothy is made acting head of West Area
Computers. Blanche dies of unclear causes later that same year. Two years after
Blanche’s breakdown, Dorothy’s promotion is made permanent. It is a chance for her to
display her organizational gifts, including the ability to choose the right woman on her
team for each request coming in from an engineering section.

Summary: Chapter Ten: Home by the Sea

Mary Jackson was born and raised in Hampton, and studied math and physical science
at Hampton Institute. After graduating in 1942, she taught high school in Maryland for a
year but then returned home to care for her ailing father. Regulations barred her from
teaching in the same school system where two of her sisters were already employed.
She found work at the Hampton USO, which served as a social club for U.S.
servicemen and their families during the war. There she met Levi Jackson. They
married in 1944. When the USO closed after the war ended, she stayed home to care
for their infant son, Levi, Jr. In her free time, she served as a Girl Scout troop leader.

By early 1951, word has gotten around in the Black community about jobs at Langley for
talented women. Mary, ready to rejoin the workforce, applies for a clerical job with the
army but also for a position at Langley. The Cold War is at its height, and Russian jets
are attacking American bombers over Korea. Within the U.S. government, there are
worries about spies passing secrets to the Soviet Union. The FBI has been investigating
selected individuals at Langley. Matilda West, a distant relative of Dorothy’s who works
at Langley and has social connections to the politically suspect Stability Research
group, is fired. At the same time, President Truman has ordered the desegregation of
the military and is pushing to eliminate discrimination in the civil service. It is in this
environment that Mary, after working just three months for the army as a civilian clerk
typist, accepts an offer to join West Computing.

Summary: Chapter Eleven: The Area Rule

Because East Computing has disbanded, engineering teams housed in the older,
eastern part of the campus occasionally request that the West Area send someone to
help out. On one such occasion, Dorothy sends Mary. Not knowing her way around the
East Area, she asks the white women she is working with for directions to the bathroom.
She is humiliated by their amused response: they have no idea where her bathroom is.
At the end of the day, still fuming, Mary speaks her mind during a conversation with an
assistant section head, Kazimierz Czarnecki. Fortunately, she has chosen the right
person to be candid with: he invites her to join his team.
Langley has lately been making exciting new discoveries, related to optimizing
wind-tunnel design and aircraft body shapes. Mary, with her physics background, thrives
in this environment. One day, when she disagrees with a division chief, a careful review
of the data and the calculations proves her right. There are women at Langley who are
very fast at mental calculations. There are women who have a deep understanding of
higher-level mathematics. But Mary has demonstrated another quality, highly prized in
engineers: the willingness to stand one’s ground when one is right.

Analysis: Chapters Eight–Eleven

Dorothy and Katherine Johnson have many of the same attributes but achieved their
success in different ways, highlighting the advancements of the Civil Rights Movement
in the decade between the women’s births. Both women studied with professors who
urged them to attend graduate school and both postponed this due to family reasons,
but while Dorothy never went, Katherine ultimately integrated the school she attended.
The fact that Katherine’s upbringing was in a less racially tense area was due to both
the geographic region and the passage of time. Dorothy was old enough to support her
family during the Depression, but Katherine was still a child, and she came of age
during the war years when many people had begun to see the value of the contributions
of Black women and men. When the high school principal offers Katherine the
opportunity to replace her husband as a chemistry teacher, it illustrates both the growing
confidence in women’s abilities to fill highly skilled positions and the fading of bias
against married women being teachers.

The tightly knit community that forms at the all-Black resort symbolizes the potential for
happiness when constant reminders of racism are absent. It also foreshadows the
strong professional community that Dorothy will create in her new position at Langley.
Dorothy has always possessed the necessary skills and expertise to prosper in a rapidly
changing climate, but the erosion of some of the racial barriers that she faced when she
first started at Langley contribute to her new ability to make impactful decisions. When
her promotion becomes permanent as a result of her success in putting together a
highly qualified team, it is clear that those in charge have moved beyond their wartime
pragmatism in hiring practices and are making a long-term investment in Dorothy’s
success.

The FBI’s investigation of staffers at Langley highlights just how important the
government considers the threat of communism to be. The same shroud of secrecy
during the war that led the townspeople to regard the Langley personnel as “weirdos”
now leads colleagues to be suspicious of one another. Unlike signs of racism in the
workplace, which often took the form of literal signage, people do not air any
anti-American sentiment in public. Mary Jackson’s hiring in the immediate wake of
Matilda West’s firing foreshadows how the environment of the Cold War will be just as
unpredictable and difficult to navigate as the years during World War II.

Chapter 11 emphasizes the significant divide that still remains between Black women
and their white counterparts. Mary’s embarrassing encounter with her white colleagues
would not be uncommon outside of Langley, but despite her previous experiences with
racism, the incident is especially humiliating in a professional situation. Her subsequent
candor in conversation later that day is remarkable not only because it demonstrates
her ability to stand up for herself, but also because it shows how a white male in a
position of authority over her has never even considered the hindrance of having
segregated bathrooms. Even though Mary has a superior education and outperforms
her white colleagues, her environment prevents her from taking care of her most basic
human needs.

Chapters Twelve–Seventeen
Summary: Chapter Twelve: Serendipity
In 1952, at a family wedding, Jimmy Goble’s brother-in-law, Eric, urges Jimmy and
Katherine to relocate from Marion to Newport News, where Eric and Jimmy’s sister,
Margaret, live. Eric is well connected and can get Jimmy a job at the shipyard. Eric also
thinks he can get Katherine a job as a mathematician at Langley. He knows several of
the women who work there, including the section head. Katherine and Jimmy decide
that the opportunity to earn much more than they currently do as teachers is too good to
pass up. With their three daughters, they move to Newsome Park. Eric has found
Jimmy a shipyard job as a painter, and Katherine’s Langley application is accepted.
Once she starts work there, in 1953, she is happily surprised to find that her new boss is
Dorothy, her former neighbor from White Sulphur Springs.

Soon, Dorothy sends Katherine on temporary assignment to the nearby Flight Research
Division. Arriving there and unsure whom to report to, she finds an empty desk, sits
down, and smiles at the white man next to her. He gives her a sideways glance, then
stands up and walks away. She wonders whether he was reacting to her race or her
gender, or was about to get up anyway. She cannot guess and chooses to give the
matter no more thought. Soon after, Katherine and the man discover they have
something in common: they are both West Virginia transplants. They become fast
friends.

Summary: Chapter Thirteen: Turbulence

The engineers at Flight Research soon recognize Katherine’s talent, and in six months
her temporary assignment is made permanent. One of her projects is an analysis of the
flight data on a small propeller airplane that had tumbled out of the sky for no apparent
reason. Katherine’s work reveals that a large jet leaves a turbulence trail that can be
fatal to a small planes crossing the jet’s path, even as much as a half hour later. This
discovery leads to changes in air traffic regulations.

Shortly after Jimmy and Katherine move their family from Newsome Park to a more
upscale development, Jimmy is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He dies just
before Christmas of 1956. Katherine grieves but is determined to carry on with her
career, grateful to have had Jimmy’s support getting started in it. She has an easier time
ignoring white people's racism than some of her Black coworkers do. One reason is her
light skin: white people are sometimes unsure whether she is Black. Also, like her
father, she knows when to be pragmatic. Instead of eating cafeteria food at a
segregated table, she eats a healthier bag lunch at her desk. Finally, she has, like her
father, a knack for inspiring respect. She openly enjoys interacting with the smart white
men she works with. By treating them as equals, she encourages them to treat her as
one.

Summary: Chapter Fourteen: Angle of Attack

By the mid-1950s, electronic computers are starting to replace human ones. The
machines are large and noisy, but they are fast, and they can run at night instead of
sleeping. Dorothy encourages her women to take courses that, in an increasingly
integrated workplace, will qualify them for jobs managing the machines. Kaz Czarnecki,
looking at Mary’s career options, urges her to qualify as an engineer. To do that, she
must take courses on the campus of Hampton High School, through the University of
Virginia’s extension program. Despite the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v.
Board of Education that segregated public schools are unconstitutional, Hampton High
remains off-limits to Black students, like all Virginia schools. Swallowing her resentment,
Mary obtains “special permission” from the City of Hampton. In 1956, she starts her
coursework.
Mary and Levi Jackson are friends with Thomas Byrdsong. Thomas is one of just three
Black male engineers at Langley. They are treated cordially by most of their white
colleagues, but they also encounter open hostility, especially from technicians and
mechanics. One mechanic deliberately sabotaged Thomas’s first wind-tunnel test.
Thomas’s white supervisor gave the mechanic an angry reprimand, in front of Thomas.

Summary: Chapter Fifteen: Young, Gifted and Black

School desegregation is a front-page news item in the fall of 1957, when nine Black
teenagers try to attend an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. A showdown
between the state and federal governments ends only when President Eisenhower
sends Army troops to escort the Black students through the school’s doors. Just weeks
later, Russia launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. The American press blames
the United States’ failure to keep up with the Soviets partly on an education system that
is more concerned with denying Black children a decent education than with preparing
male and female students of all races for careers as scientists and engineers.

At the Allen School for Girls, a private all-Black school in Asheville, North Carolina,
Christine Mann (no relation to Miriam Mann) has started her senior year. She has just
turned fifteen. She showed unusual curiosity from a young age, learning how to
maintain her bicycle and taking apart her talking dolls to see how they worked. The next
spring, she is class valedictorian. She wants to attend a historically Black college, but
not any of those her older siblings went to. In August of 1958, she begins her studies at
Hampton Institute. There she will get to know Joylette Goble, Katherine’s daughter.

Summary: Chapter Sixteen: What a Difference a Day Makes

Thanks partly to research done at Langley, the problem of high-speed atmospheric flight
has essentially been solved. Katherine and her colleagues have been wondering what
comes next. Sputnik provides the answer: Langley will shift its focus to space flight. The
government, eager to put the Sputnik embarrassment behind it, is determined to show
the world that America’s space program can beat Russia’s. NACA, a small,
engineer-run organization that stayed out of the public eye, is reorganized into NASA, a
bureaucracy with a mandate to grow and to make news with its successes. Langley
Aeronautical Laboratory is renamed Langley Research Center.

Katherine welcomes the challenges that lie ahead. For Dorothy, the changes are more
bittersweet. Like Mary and Katherine, many other West Area women have ended up in
specialized sections. Dorothy’s team has shrunk to nine women and no longer plays the
central role it once did. There is also the awkwardness of an all-Black work unit, at a
time when racial segregation is a growing international embarrassment for the United
States. In 1958, West Computing is shut down, like East Computing before it. Dorothy
will stay on at Langley, but from now on, she is just “one of the girls,” no longer a
supervisor.

Summary: Chapter Seventeen: Outer Space

The Flight Research Division, where Katherine works, and the Pilotless Aircraft
Research Division (PARD) take the lead in developing Langley’s space engineering
expertise. The engineers prepare lectures to give one another, on topics like rocket
propulsion, the physics of orbit, and the problems of atmospheric reentry. They begin
producing written reports. Every report must undergo editorial review by a committee
looking for flaws. Katherine wants to attend the editorial meetings and ask questions,
just like her male colleagues. “Girls don’t go to the meetings,” she is told—not Black
women, and not white women, either. And yet a white woman, Dorothy Lee, is a PARD
engineer and is even starting to earn authorship credit on some reports. Katherine
persists and finally, in 1958, starts attending editorial meetings in the Guidance and
Control Branch of the Flight Research Division.
Analysis: Chapters Twelve–Seventeen
Katherine’s second chance at a better life is serendipitous, but her ability to move past
an awkward encounter and make a new friend illustrates how she possesses the traits
that will lead her to take full advantage of this new opportunity, and chart her own
course to success. Her rapid progression to a permanent position highlights her ability
to adapt to new situations and foreshadows her ability to transition into becoming a
single mother. On the surface, Katherine’s tendency to turn a blind eye to the casual
discrimination she encounters is a liability, but her forward focus also allows her to lead
by example and inspire her white male coworkers to treat her in the same manner that
she treats them, which leads to a more lasting occurrence of equality in the workplace.

The Russian triumphs in the Space Race are a catalyst for increased demand of
American technological advancements, which in turn leads to societal change. Just as
World War II led to increased opportunities for Black men and women to contribute to
the war effort and new hiring practices at Langley, Americans’ fear of Russian
superiority during the Cold War led to a more pragmatic attitude about the separate but
unequal opportunities for Black schoolchildren. Although Langley's culture is not totally
egalitarian, its many successes illustrate the dire need for talented scientists,
mathematicians, and engineers of all races.

While the plateau of Dorothy’s career arc highlights the positive changes underway for
Black students, society deems it more important to cultivate emerging talent of color
rather than reward the Black women and men who have contributed to their country by
providing opportunities for late-career advancement. Dorothy quickly rose through the
lower ranks at Langley early in her career, sought out training in order to remain a
valued resource during times of change, and encouraged her peers to do the same. The
fact that Dorothy’s department remains segregated despite the many women and men
of color who now work alongside their white counterparts only shows that no matter how
much Dorothy contributes to Langley’s success, she can only rise so far as a Black
woman. At nearly 50 years old, she is again “one of the girls,” a sign that there is still a
long road ahead to workplace equality.

Katherine’s successful battle to join editorial meetings is a prime example of the

fortitude and determination that women of color must employ in order to dispel racial
and gender stereotypes as well as the bigoted policies that prevent them from
succeeding. Access to the same information as one’s colleagues is a crucial component
of doing a job effectively, and Katherine knows how important it is for her to have the
ability to ask questions if she is to properly execute her own tasks. The admittance of a
white woman to the meeting makes it clear that Katherine’s race is the only thing barring
her participation, and unlike the casual racism that she has previously brushed off,
Katherine will not let this blatant bigotry prevent her from doing her job well.

Chapters Eighteen–Twenty
Summary: Chapter Eighteen: With All Deliberate Speed
On orders from NASA, the Space Task Group is formed, drawing its staff mainly from
Flight Research and PARD. The group’s assignment is Project Mercury, culminating in a
manned orbit around the Earth. Katherine, a widow with a college-aged daughter, is less
socially active than she used to be. However, at church, she meets Jim Johnson, who
had served in both the navy and the army and now works as a mail carrier. The two
quickly start courting.

At Flight Research, the loss of staff has meant increased responsibilities for Katherine.
By 1959, she is doing most of the work putting together a report on the correct launch
direction for a manned rocket. Reentry must put the space capsule, with the astronaut
inside, down in the ocean at a preselected location, for pickup by ships standing by.
Calculations have to take account of Earth’s gravity, its rotation, its slightly flattened
shape, and many other factors. When the report is finished, the division chief agrees
that she should be listed as a coauthor. By now, she and Jim Johnson have married, so
her name appears on the report as Katherine G. Johnson.

Summary: Chapter Nineteen: Model Behavior

Mary and her son, Levi, Jr., work on his entry in the 1960 Newport News soap box
derby, to be held in early July. As an engineer, Mary knows more than most fathers
about how to improve a soap box racer’s performance. Boys from Black families do not
usually know about the derby, much less enter it. For Mary, the contest is a chance for
Levi to compete with white boys on equal terms—fair and square, win or lose. Girls are
not allowed to enter, but Mary wants better opportunities for them, too. She and a
female white colleague give a talk to Black junior high girls about engineering as a
career for women. As a Girl Scout troop leader, Mary lobbies for a single, integrated
council for the area.

The day of the big race arrives. Levi wins, saving his best time for the final, deciding
heat. When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, he answers, “I want to be an
engineer like my mother.”

Summary: Chapter Twenty: Degrees of Freedom

1960 is an eventful year for the Civil Rights Movement. A lunch counter sit-in in
Greensboro, North Carolina inspires similar actions elsewhere, including at Hampton.
Christine Mann, by now an Institute junior with a heavy courseload, makes time to join
the protests and also to participate in voter registration drives. In Virginia, the protestors
are opposed by state and county governments who are strongly committed to
segregation. The county where Dorothy taught high school even defunds all public
schools, rather than integrate them. Langley is moving in the opposite direction. Dorothy
joins the newly formed Analysis and Computation Division, where she writes programs
to be run on IBM computers. She works alongside white women and, increasingly,
alongside men.
When Alan Shepard, in a short suborbital flight in 1961, becomes the first American in
space, President Kennedy announces a goal of reaching the Moon by the end of the
decade. Langley will be involved, but NASA plans to make Houston the center for this
ambitious endeavor. Some of the Langley women are prepared to relocate, but many,
including Katherine, are not.

Analysis: Chapters Eighteen–Twenty

When the division chief agrees to list Katherine as coauthor on the report she
spearheads for Flight Research, it is a watershed moment for her, for her peers, and for
her legacy. With so many different professionals contributing research and expertise to
a variety of initiatives, it would be easy for one person to claim credit for another
person’s work or to subjectively dismiss the value of their contributions. Barring “girls”
from the editorial meetings is just one example of how white men ensure their status at
the top of the professional hierarchy, and is an indication of how much Katherine’s talent
threatens them. Listing Katherine’s name on the report is not a mere honor or gesture, it
guarantees that no one can dispute her contributions to the report or to her department
in general.

Levi’s win at the soapbox derby is not just a victory for him—it also represents the
barriers that are breaking for other Black children and for Black women. While there is
no explicit rule against Black boys competing in the derby, the fact that it has historically
been an event for white boys and their fathers shows how closed white social circles
are. The bonds between fathers and sons of all races are equally sacrosanct, and the
stereotypically masculine nature of them highlight how firmly entrenched gender
stereotypes remain. The soapbox derby presents a perfectly level playing field for a
mother-son team, as it is a test of preparedness, intelligence, and determination rather
than a display of physical prowess. When Levi wins, he shows everyone what Black
boys are capable of, and the fact that he aspires to follow in his mother’s footsteps
proves that he can look beyond traditional male roles as well.

The contrasts between Langley's path toward integration and the opposition to
integration in Virginia's public schools demonstrate that a broadened perspective is
necessary in order for people to value social change. The people who make up the
community at Langley are, as a whole, much more diverse and highly educated than the
constituents of an average American community. Yet the very schools that might feed
them talent would prefer to defund themselves rather than integrate. As career
professionals, the women at Langley know that their access to education has provided
benefits to their employer as well as to them personally. This perspective leads them to
leverage their positions of power and competence to help the Civil Rights Movement, as
they know that students of all races and ethnicities will benefit from a more inclusive
future in space technology and in their lives on Earth.

Chapters Twenty-One–Twenty-Three
Summary: Chapter Twenty-One: Out of the Past, the Future
The press and the public are growing impatient with NASA and Project Mercury. Russia
completes a seventeen-orbit mission while the Mercury engineers iron out a series of
problems. Finally, in July of 1962, Project Mercury is ready to launch its first astronaut
into Earth orbit: John Glenn. Like most pilots, he instinctively mistrusts fully automated
flight. Similarly, with data analysis, he wants to see a human being at the controls. “Get
the girl to check the numbers,” he says—the one he has heard about and occasionally
seen in the halls at Langley. He means Katherine. After a day and a half of work, she
has confirmed the IBM machines’ output. The launch proceeds.

As Glenn circles the Earth, an indicator signals possible trouble with a heat shield.
During reentry, the capsule wobbles, and Glenn must make manual corrections. In the
end, however, he lands safely. Three weeks later, thirty thousand people turn out for a
parade through Hampton and Newport News. Glenn is the hero, but word in the Black
community has gotten around about Katherine’s contribution. The Pittsburgh
Courier runs her photo on the front page.

Summary: Chapter Twenty-Two: America Is for Everybody

In August of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., gives his “I Have a Dream” speech to the
crowd gathered for the March on Washington. The event organizer is A. Philip
Randolph, head of the railroad porters’ union during the Roosevelt era. A few months
later, Dorothy is recognized for twenty years of service at Langley. Randolph’s
confrontation with Roosevelt made her career possible. Over the next few years, NASA
increases its efforts to recruit Black men and women for science and engineering jobs.

By early 1967, NASA is closing in on Kennedy’s Moon landing goal. The effort suffers a
tragic setback when the three astronauts of the Apollo 1 mission die in a capsule fire
during testing. For the Space Task Force, the disaster means long workdays to meet
new, tighter safety standards for future missions. Katherine pushes herself relentlessly.
One day, she drives her car off the road after falling asleep at the wheel. Fortunately,
she is unhurt. In the spring, Christine Mann, now going by her married name, Darden,
completes a master’s program at Virginia State University. Christine is encouraged to
apply to work for NASA and is quickly hired at Langley. She never works for Katherine,
but they attend church together and are socially close.

Summary: Chapter Twenty-Three: To Boldly Go

In July of 1969, the Moon-bound Apollo 11 mission launches. A worldwide audience
follows the mission with excitement. For Black Americans, however, the event highlights
mixed-up national priorities. While billions of dollars are being spent to put two white
men on the Moon, Black Americans on Earth are still denied access to gas station
bathrooms. As for economic opportunity, the ranks of NASA employees illustrate the
problem. Despite recent recruitment efforts, Black employees are still underrepresented,
and none of the men in the astronaut program are Black.

Still, there is a very visible reason to hope that Black men and women have a future in
the space program. On the television show Star Trek, a Black woman, Nichelle Nichols,
has been playing Lieutenant Uhura, communication officer of the starship Enterprise.
Nichols planned to quit after one season, but Martin Luther King persuaded her to stay
on. A fan of the show, he urged her to remember what it meant for Black Americans to
see one of their own on the Enterprise bridge.
Katherine, enjoying a weekend with sorority sisters at a Black-owned resort in the
Poconos, watches the Moon landing on television. As a child, she had followed her
father in working a service job at a hotel. Now she is enjoying a resort stay as a guest,
as the event she helped bring about unfolds. The Moon landing is proof: anything is
possible.

Analysis: Chapters Twenty-One–Twenty-Three

The fact that John Glenn still refers to Katherine as "the girl" is an example of white
men’s ability to compartmentalize their need for a Black woman’s expertise, and their
view that they still maintain a superior status. Her race against time in checking the
computers is a classic literary trope of “man versus machine,” and while Katherine is
almost superhuman in her ability to manage this thinking machine, the battle also
highlights that she was once a mere “colored computer” herself.

When the Pittsburgh Courier publishes Katherine’s photo, it provides another concrete,
indisputable record of her contributions to her field and her country. Just like her
coauthor credit on the report, her photo will become archival evidence that proves her
value to future generations. Her name on the report, however, will only resonate with
her peers in a very specialized industry, and her name alone gives no indication as to
her race. A photo of a successful, educated Black woman in a widely read publication in
a large urban area can reach and inspire countless people, and this significant exposure
foreshadows that Katherine and her peers will not be “hidden figures” forever.
The historical links to the work of A. Phillip Randolph, who many also consider to be a
hidden figure in the Civil Rights Movement, indicate how much the women at Langley
owe their success to the groundbreaking work of those who came before them. A.
Phillip Randolph’s efforts as an organizer during the Roosevelt administration resulted in
Black women being permitted to serve at Langley, and mentioning him in the same
chapter that details the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of Dorothy's
service at Langley highlights her debt of gratitude to him. Dorothy has repaid this debt
forward many times throughout her career, including to Katherine, who went on to pave
the way for Christine Darden’s success.

The euphoric atmosphere surrounding the moon landing highlights the disparities in
social and economic positions for Black Americans. The government spent billions of
dollars to send a white man to the moon at a time when there were no known Black
astronauts waiting to be selected for a mission, all while failing to ensure that Black
children in the same country had access to equitable public education opportunities.
The Black women who worked as mathematicians at NASA are intertwined with the
history of the United States of America and the success of the Space Program, but they
battled constantly for the tools that they needed to help the program succeed and for
the recognition that they deserved.
The final chapter highlights how crucial it is for Black women to be visible to their peers
and to the world at large in order to continue to break through the barriers of racism and
sexism. Just as Katherine’s photo in a Black newspaper provided an example of
success to a wider audience, Nichelle Nichols’ character on a widely viewed television
show for a multi-racial audience made the notion of a Black woman in space seem
accessible to all who saw her. Only Katherine knew of her role in the moon landing
when she watched it on television, but the fact that she watched it among Black female
friends foreshadows the possibilities for the women who will follow in her path once they
can see for themselves what success looks like.