First-time author Margot Lee Shetterly’s 2016 book has, of course, been made into a wonderful movie
Hidden Figures
. But Ms. Shetterly’s book is absolute “must reading” for those of us who wanted to know MORE, after being entranced by the movie. And this book definitely “delivers” (as well as “corrects” some of the “literary license” that was taken for dramatic purposes, in the movie). As her biography on the book’s back cover states, Ms. Shetterly actually grew up in Hampton, Virginia, and her father worked at NASA’s Langley Research Center, so she is able to provide some fascinating personal “background” for the book.
She recalls in the Prologue her memories about her father’s place of work, “Women occupied many of the cubicles; they answered phones and sat in front of typewriters, but they also made hieroglyphic marks on transparent slides and conferred with my father and other men in the office on the stacks of documents that littered their desks. That so many of them were African-American… struck me as simply part of the natural order of things: growing up in Hampton, the face of science was brown like mine… As a child… I knew so many African Americans working in science, math, and engineering that I thought that’s just what black folks did.” (Pg. xiii)
She also points out, “And while the black women are the most hidden of the mathematicians who worked at the NACA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and later at NASA, they were not sitting alone in the shadows: the white women who made up the majority of Langley’s computing workforce over the years have hardly been recognized for their contributions to the agency’s long-term success.” (Pg. xvi) [See
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
, for more about them.]
She explains about her research, “My investigation became more like an obsession… I was determined to prove their existence and their talent in a way that meant they would never again be lost to history… I started to want something more for them than just putting them on the record. What I wanted was for them to have the grand, sweeping narrative that they deserved… Not at the margins, but at the very center, the protagonists of the drama. And not just because they are black, or because they are women, but because they are part of the American epic.” (Pg. xvii-xviii)
She explains about the cafeteria, “Most groups sat together out of habit. For the West Computers, it was by mandate. A white cardboard sign… [was] spelling out the lunchroom hierarchy: COLORED COMPUTERS. It was the only sign in the West Area cafeteria; no other group needed their seating proscribed in the same fashion. The janitors, the laborers, the cafeteria workers themselves did not take lunch in the main cafeteria. The women of West Computing were the only black professionals at the laboratory---not exactly excluded, but not quite included either.” (Pg. 43)
She points out, “Not everyone could take the long hours and high stakes of working at Langley, but most of the women in West Computing felt that if they didn’t stand up to the pressure, they’d forfeit their opportunity for the women who would come after them. They had more riding on the jobs at Langley than most… [they] were becoming a band of sisters in and out of work, each day bringing them closer to each other and tethering them to the place that was transforming them as they helped to transform it.” (Pg. 49)
She notes that Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe in the movie) was leader of the AME’s Girl Scout troop No. 11; and once, after she started to lead the troop in a song they had often sung, that had a reference to slaves working the fields, she announced to the girls, “‘Hold on a minute!... We are never going to sing this again…’ … The song reinforced all the crudest stereotypes of what a Negro could do or be… It was a powerful moment for the girls of Troop 11. Mary didn’t have the power to remove the limits that society imposed on her girls, but it was her duty, she felt, to help pry off the restrictions, they might place on themselves… You can do better---WE can do better, she told them with every word and every deed. For Mary Jackson, life was a long process of raising everyone’s expectations.” (Pg. 98)
She observes, “even though it was the black women who broke Langley’s color barrier, paving the way for the black men now being hired, the women would still have to fight for something that the black men could take for granted: the title of engineer.” (Pg. 114)
She recounts, “John Becker [chief of the Compressibility Division] gave Mary Jackson the instructions for working through the calculations. She delivered the finished assignment to him… Becker reviewed the output, but something about the numbers didn’t seem right to him. So he challenged Mary’s numbers, insisting that her calculations were wrong… Finally, it became clear: the problem wasn’t with her output but with his input. Her calculations were correct, based on the wrong numbers Becker had given her. John Becker apologized to Mary Jackson… Mary Jackson---a former West Computer!---had faced down the brilliant John Becker and won. It was cause for quiet celebration and behind-the-scenes thumbs-up among all the female computers.” (Pg. 114-115)
She states, “Outside the gates, the caste rules were clear. Blacks and whites lived separately, ate separately, studied separately, and, for the most part, worked separately. At Langley, the boundaries were fuzzier. Blacks… had also been given an unprecedented entrée into the professional world… Sometimes the demons still presented themselves in the form of racism and blatant discrimination. Sometimes they took on the softer cast of ignorance and thoughtless prejudice. But these days, there was also a new culprit: the insecurity that plagued black people as they code-shifted through the unfamiliar language and customs of an integrated life.” (Pg. 123)
In one of the incidents that the movie version changed, Ms. Shetterly notes about Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson in the movie), “From the very beginning, Katherine felt completely at home at Langley… At the beginning, she didn’t even realize the bathrooms were segregated… Though bathrooms for the black employees were clearly marked, most of the bathrooms---the ones implicitly designated for white employees---were unmarked. As far as Katherine was concerned, there was no reason why she shouldn’t use those as well. It would be a couple of years before she was confronted with whole rigmarole of separate bathrooms. By then, she simply refused to change her habits---refused to so much as enter the Colored bathrooms. And that was that. No one ever said another word to her about it.” (Pg. 129)
She explains, “Across the country, the United States debated the quality of its schools, concerned with how American students matched up to the Soviets in math and the sciences… Virtually every review of the situation questioned how much desperately needed brainpower was being squandered by the intentional neglect of America’s Negro schools.” (Pg. 142) Later, she adds, “In forcing the United States to compete for the allegiance of yellow and black countries throwing off the shackles of colonialism, the Soviets influenced something much closer to Earth, and ultimately more difficult than putting a satellite, or even a human, into space: weakening Jim Crow’s grip on America.” (Pg. 170)
She reports, “‘Why can’t I go to the editorial meetings?’ [Katherine] asked the engineers… ‘Girls don’t go to the meetings,’ Katherine’s male colleagues told her. ‘Is there a law against it?’ Katherine retorted. There wasn’t, in fact. There were laws telling her … which fountain to drink from. There were laws restricting her… because she was a woman. But no law applied to the editorial meeting. It wasn’t personal: it was just the way things had always been done, they told her.” (Pg. 179) But she adds, “‘Let her go,’ they finally said, exasperated. The engineers just got tired of saying no. Who were they, they must have figured, to stand in the way of someone so committed to making a contribution… whose success… might tip the balance in the outcome of the Cold War?” (Pg. 182)
She records, “Spaceship-flying computers might be the future, but it didn’t mean that John Glenn had to trust them. He did, however, trust the brainy fellas who controlled the computers. And the brainy fells who controlled the computers trusted THEIR computer, Katherine Johnson… therefore, John Glenn trusted Katherine Johnson… ‘Get the girl to check the numbers,’ said the astronaut. If she says the numbers are good, he told them, I’m ready to go.” (Pg. 216-217)
There is SO much more in the book; if you are interested in the movie, in the historical progress of African-Americans and women in this country, in the history of the space program, or just in a beautifully-told account of an ultimately highly “inspirational” story, you need to read this book! Personally, I can’t wait to read Ms. Shetterly’s next work…
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Customer reviews
Remarkable. That’s the best review I can give this story to be honest. I’d never heard of these women nor of the work they and others like them did. Why don’t we read about this at school or why is it not better known? Well now with this book and the movie coming out, I hope that changes as people like this should be on the front pages of the history books not banished to the side lines if they appear at all.I’d read a few stories of people forgotten or tainted by history – Alan Turning, Henrietta Lacks….such remarkable people and because of the colour of their skin or their sexuality they’re brushed aside and ignored!!? Apart from the racial issues and the portrayal of the Civil Rights movement ongoing at the time, the work which went on Langley and NASA was also remarkable and looking back when you think of what it would lead to…I am in awe of these women and can’t wait to see the movie. Oscar nominated and quite rightly so.
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Top reviews from other countries
OKCole
Compelling social more than technical history
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 14, 2018ChrisG
Ana astonishing account of brilliant women and much much better than the film.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 22, 2017
Wednesday's child
Read the book, never mind the film.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 18, 2017kathleen wilson
Should be compelling! but is so boring.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 8, 2020Brgirl
Terrible writing style but a wonderful story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 4, 2018
