African-american Female In Hidden Figures

The hidden figure describes to us a story of three dedicated African American female mathematicians aka known as the “human computers” who used pencils, scales, and adding machines to calculate the numbers on how they could launch rockets into space. These female problem-solvers were some of the brightest minds in their generation which was 1930 following close to the early 1970s. Due to the times the color of their skin, they weren’t offered a high position or high-paying jobs restricting them to teach math in segregated schools. That era was a tough time for African Americans as they were discriminated against due to their dark skin. However due to the labor shortages during world war two the situation was so bad that the American aeronautics industry was willing to hire anybody regarding when female or the color of the skin as long as they had the skills to get the job done. Finally letting these mathematical geniuses have a job worthy of their skills and once they had the positions they were asked to relocate to an Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton Virginia.

Dorothy Vaughan one of the main characters applied for the position and shortly after that she was hired and she and her family moving to Virginia ask, she was getting twice the pay of being a school teacher. However, on the move to Virginia, she found for the first time the segregated bus system. When she started her work, she found herself working along with another colored woman, because of the color of their skin they were not only segregated at work they were also expected to eat at a table marked “colored computers”. As Dorothy was settling into her new life Katherine Johnson also come to work alongside her building up to the same reason as Dorothy where she could use her skills in a more challenging environment.

Katherine is an early graduate who attended college on a scholarship. She was chosen to be one of the three black students who would attend a white college. During her graduate program, she married Jimmy Goble and was forced to drop out once she knew she was pregnant.

Leading back to Dorothy, although engineering is a male-controlled industry the researchers working to break the sound barrier need women on-site so that they could analyze the data of the test runs. Dorothy eventually gets promoted and becomes head of the group when the former supervisor falls ill and dies.

The third character who is introduced in the book is Mary Jackson who is a math teacher and took part in the USO during the war she is a kindhearted person who likes to help people and a type of person who led the girl scout group at schools. Soon on later she beings working at Langley in a clerical position and become a computer. During her time in Langley, civil rights leader complained about the US for making allies with black and brown countries while discriminating against their own black people. So, the president desegregated its army and informed that there would be a fair and equal amount of black people in government jobs.

As Mary Jackson is asked to work on a project on the side where her white colleagues were not found of working with colored skin people, she was verbally scared and laughed at by her white colleagues when she asked about a colored bathroom. She informed her supervisor and was eventually moved to a different assignment.

The book then moves back to Katherine where she is moving to Virginia with her family to start her job as a computer. Being assigned a job at the flight research division where she encounters an act of discrimination where white colleagues whom she approached got up and went looking for another place to sit however being the mature person she is she did not take offend which related them as being friends further down the line.

However, being indifferent department and being segregated these three brilliant individuals found each other since they were the only three black people in NASA. Leaning back into the book they were all fond of each other and therefore had each other backs even though the other white computers and colleagues didn’t like them and discriminated against them they were there only for one reason to ensure their skills were implemented and affection whether the color of their skin was white or black.

Due to these women going through tough times Dorothy Vaughan eventually gets Katherine a job permanently. She approached Katherine's supervisor giving him an ultimatum to either give her a raise or send her back to west computing which would lead to one less brilliant computer not calculating the launch. Leading to her win one of her first assignments was to research a plane crash in a result she found the correct calculation and solved the air traffic control regulations to avoid turbulence.

This is when Katherine assists and fixes the calculations for Jhon Gleens's flight to space by using the mechanical computer to check the numbers on his spacecraft. Her calculations were correct which lead to the success of the further Apollo 11 mission and many more to come.

Mary Jackson takes on a job at NASA as a spoke person for the careers of bright women. While however, Dorothy Vaughan had never accomplished her goal, she is respected and recognized for her work at Langley proving a statement that women can work in the mathematics and science fields.