Hidden figures Chapter 13 - 18

Katherine begins to settle into the Flight Research group that she is temporarily assigned to work with, and her supervisors quickly realize her potential as they transform her assignment into a permanent one. She soon finds an opportunity to prove her prowess as she is given the data of a small propeller plane that suddenly tumbled out of the sky. Katherine discovers a trail of turbulence that had been left by a much larger plane which had led to the accident, and learns that such trails can be disastrous for small planes even half an hour after the passing of a large plane. She is lauded for her discovery, and it also leads to changes in air traffic regulations leading to greater safety for air travel. This progress at work is accompanied by disastrous events in her personal life, as Katherine’s husband, Jimmy, is diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. Katherine supports her spouse to the utmost, but he passes away in the December of 1956. She remains a determined employee at NACA despite losing her husband, as she endeavors to thrive in the career that her husband had so supportively helped her build. She has an easier time dealing with the discrimination against black people at the work than the rest of her colleagues from the West section. This is partly because she has a lighter complexion which often confuses people about her race, but it is also because Katherine’s attitude encourages people to treat her as an equal as she rarely ever acts as if she is anything less than an equal when interacting with her colleagues, irrespective of their gender and race.

Computers begin to make a place for themselves at NACA, although they are extremely large and noisy machines they make up for it with their speed. The IBM machines that the NACA begins to use perform several thousand calculations per second, and it is inevitable that human computers are eventually going to be redundant soon. Dorothy recognizes the potential of these machines and their applicability so she begins to encourage the computers in the West section to learn about the machines so that they can eventually be hired to work at managing the machines. Mary’s supervisor encourages her to pursue a distance course at Hampton High school through the University of Virginia so that she can qualify as an engineer. Mary smothers her indignation at having to request special permission to study at the still segregated high school since the state of Virginia refuses to accept the 1954 Supreme Court judgment in the case of Brown vs Board of Education which deemed segregation at schools to be unconstitutional. School desegregation comes to the fore as the press reports a standoff between the state government and the federal government in the state of Arkansas in 1957. The matter becomes more inflamed when the USSR beats America in placing a satellite in orbit of the earth. The American media is unrestrained in blaming an education system that is more focused on keeping children separate based on race rather than training all students to have a robot scientific framework to prepare them for careers in research and engineering. Christine Mann from North Carolina impresses all her educators with her scientific temper, she becomes the valedictorian of her all-black private school. She then joins the Hampton Institute for her higher education, and there she encounters Joylette, Katherine Goble’s daughter.

The success of Sputnik spells several changes for the employees of NACA, who have now mostly overcome the challenges of high-speed atmospheric flight and are unsure about the problem they will be asked to work on next. The United States reorients its focus to competing with the USSR in space flight, determined to show the world that a capitalist government can outcompete a communist government. NACA is reorganized and renamed to be called NASA. It is tasked with overcoming the challenge of space flight with a focus on making the news with its discoveries. Most of these changes spell great progress for the black women working in the organization, but they are disastrous for the West section computers. Women have been leaving the pool for permanent assignments for a long while now, and Dorothy barely has nine women working for her now. The organization is also concerned about the presence of a segregated work group in light of the Federal government’s stance on segregation. Eventually, the West computing pool is dissolved, and Dorothy is reduced to the status of just “another one of the girls,” no longer a supervisor.

The task of space flight is entrusted to the Pilotless Aircraft Research Team, and the Flight Research Division, where Katherine works. The engineers take on the gargantuan task of breaking out of the earth’s atmosphere. They begin to prepare lectures for one another on the multitude of factors that impact the problem of space flight, such as rocket propulsion and orbits. They prepare detailed reports that are examined by a committee for errors. Katherine is a crucial part of the team, but she is never allowed to sit in on the editorial review meetings. She continues to demand the privilege of sitting in on the meeting so that she can pose her questions to the group as well, but she is always told that women never sit in on the meetings irrespective of race. Katherine later learns that a white woman engineer from the PARD is allowed to go into the editorial committee’s meetings and renews her efforts. Finally, Katherine is allowed to be a part of the editorial committee for the first time in 1958. NASA prepares a special task group called the Space Task Group, which is composed of members from Katherine’s Flight Research Division and the PARD. They are entrusted with Project Mercury, which is focused on achieving a manned orbit around the earth. The transfer of so many skilled engineers to the Space Task Group creates a skill lacuna in Katherine’s division and she charges into that gap without hesitation. Katherine is soon performing critical mathematics about the launch direction of rockets, and atmospheric re-entry so that Astronauts can safely land at preselected locations. The final report on the subject impresses the chief so thoroughly that he agrees to include her name as a co-author. By this time, Katherine has married Jim Johnson, a retired soldier from the Navy whom she had met at her church.

Analysis

In this section of the book, the reader can see that the process of societal progression is driven by the necessity of the day. The government begins hiring black men and women for jobs like those of the early day NACA computers because they are driven by their desire to win the war. Similarly, the success of the USSR’s sputnik, and the resultant Space race, force the government to take concrete actions in desegregating schools as well as the workforce. However, this change in policy fails to take into consideration black men and women like Dorothy, who have already served the government for several years even during the height of segregation. The government places more emphasis on nurturing young black people to pursue a career in the sciences but does not make any provisions for employees like Dorothy. She had done all in her power to rise to the surface through hard work and diligence, choosing to up-skill herself when she discovered the use of computers. In the end, Dorothy is removed from her position as the section supervisor and reduced to being one of the “girls” despite being well into her fifties. On the other hand, Katherine chooses to stand her ground when she comes across blatant racism. She understands that sitting in the editorial meetings will allow her to perform her job better. Katherine refuses to entertain the excuse that the position was only meant for men, as she learns of a white woman engineer being included in the meetings. She continues to fight for her right and eventually succeeds.