English 2.9 – Wide Reading

Text style: Novel

Written by: Margot Lee Shetterly

Background info/brief summary of the text

Hidden figures tells the story of three independent black woman who work at NASA. During the race between Russia and the United States to put a man in space NASA found undeniable talent in three african american woman Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. Crossing all expectations of gender and race, they were the masterminds behind one of the greatest operations in history  – the launch of John Glenn into orbit. The book follows the story of these three women, who are known as ‘human calculators”, as they confront their stereotypes and use their strengths. The book begins focusing on Katherine at school. The school officials want to send her to a gifted school because she is a very advanced math genius. The only school for ‘colored students’ begins in 6th grade sand she’s only eight therefore making a huge jump. Her parents also have to make sacrifices and move towns so that she can go to the school. At the new school katherine is already more capable than her fellow teenage students who are all much older than her. 

In 1961 Katherine is carpooling to work with her co-workers Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson and they get stopped on the side of the road by a racist police officer. After explaining they work at NASA the police officers attitude changes completely as he is impressed and also surprised that NASA hired african americnan woman. 

The Space Task Group watch Russia send Sputnik 1 into space and are worried that the Russians can now spy on America. The man in charge demands that they get someone up in space because he can’t justify the cost of a space program that doesn’t send people to space. 

The West Area computing division segregated from the rest of the Langley research centre full of many black women who are working as computers (doing math by hand). Mary wants to work as  an engineer but is told she will be assisting the male engineers. Dorothy hands out new assignments to the group, her boss tells her they need someone to join the Space Task Group to do analytical geometry. Dorothy assigns Katherine to that role because she is undeniably the best at analytical geometry. As Katherine is escorted to the new department she is told that it is a demanding position and she won’t likely last very long as they have fired many computers recently. She enters the room with a harsh unwelcoming as it is full of white men who have a huge lack of respect first her. At first they mistake her as a janitor before pointing out that they don’t usually have women, let aloneblack women, in that department.

Mary works in the engineering department amongst the male engineers. They are discussing possible ways to fix and improve the space capsule that just failed its test in the wind tunnel. As the men talk Mary makes a suggestion which is well accepted and she is told by the head engineer that she should be an engineer but then reaffirms the idea that she never will be because she is a negro woman.

Dorothy asks for a promotion to a supervisor as she is already acting the job of a supervisor and it is declined, she has to remain diplomatic otherwise she might lose her job. 

The three women are continually mistreated through there time at  NASA despite their vital contributions to the program. Their jobs are made more difficult because they are considered inferior  but as the story continues Katherine begins to win her fellow NASA co-workers over. From expressing her opinions about racial stereotyping, to segregated coffee pots the NASA program, predominantly the Flight Research Division that Katherine works in, begins to become more open-minded about race. 

Katherine continues calculating trajectories and writing reports for John Glenn’s approaching launch. Her persistence with removing the racist sentiment from the NASA program has allowed her to include her name in the bylines. Before John Glenn’s launch a problem arises in the control room when the IBM machines calculations of Glenn’s flight don’t match those of the day before. Glenn requests that Katherine does the calculations for the flight because he trusts her more than the IBM machine. 

Fifty million people watch the lift off on television.

After the successful launch Dorothy is promoted to supervisor of the Analysis and Computation Division, Mary gets her degree and becomes an engineer.

“Katherine went on to calculate the trajectories for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon and for Apollo 13, as well. President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. In 2016, the Langley Research Center in Virginia where she worked was renamed the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility. She retired in 1986 and remains married to Jim Johnson to this day.”

Personal response

I was originally curious to read the novel “Hidden Figures” because it was the story of three intelligent woman defying the stereotypes they were given. As you will know from my previous responses I heavily support having independent opinions and making decisions based off you are not who you are expected to be. These women, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, were undeniably advanced in their areas of expertise yet they had to face the barriers created by their stereotypes. It was a powerful story to hear as these women never gave up on what they were good at, they continued to strengthen their talents and fulfill their potential while dealing with racial mistreatment. Their dignity and intelligence also caused them to create change around the stigma of black women in America at the time. 

The prejudice present in the book is not only racism but also sexism. It was one thing to be black in 1961, it was one thing to be a woman, and to be a black woman was another level of inferior. It would never have been expected for a black woman to have a position of any significance at an institute like NASA whoever Dorothy, Mary and Katherine managed to defy these odds. This was present in the scene where they are pulled over by a racist police officer at the beginning of the book. Katherine, Mary and Dorothy are all employed at NASA and as co-workers they are carpooling to work together. On their way they are pulled over by a white police officer for no reason other than harsh preconceived judgement. After conversing with the officer they explain to him that they are employees of NASA and are making their way to work. The officer is shocked but also impressed and responds by giving them priority on the highway. He sends them off on their journey to continue down the highway following a police car. “Three negro woman are chasing a white police officer down the highway in Hampton, Virginia, 1961. Ladies, that there is a God-ordained miracle.” This scene reflects to aspects of the woman; the prejudice that was inflicted on them and the way they defied the racial stereotypes that they were expected to conform to. They were pulled  over and asked for identification because they were black woman.

It was never expected by the white police officer that these women would be working at NASA because of what  they looked like. I love the way the woman defied their stereotypes and utilised their potential. As mentioned in many of my previous reading logs, I feel as if people that are considered inferior because of their race, gender, religious beliefs are often taken advantage. Because they are considered inferior their talent and purpose in the world is ignorantly overlooked as if it couldn’t possibly exist. This form of making assumptions based off preconceived judgement is present many times in the film.