Hidden figures Chapter 9 - 12
Dorothy is concerned that she will no longer have a job after the end of the war, but the increased workload in the lab leads to her becoming a permanent employee of the civil service soon after the end of the war. This must have been a relief to her and the family since she grows to be the primary financial provider for the family, and she has two more children with Howard. The women in Newsome park become as close as family to the Vaughans, and the Vaughans begin to picnic with the other black families from the women in west computing. Contrary to popular opinion, the end of the war does not signal any decrease in job vacancies at the Laboratory as Virginia becomes the epitome of the military-industrial complex. Langely is converted into the headquarters of the Army Air Corps, which is quickly transformed into another independent arm of the martial forces and rechristened to be the Air Force. American industry turns to begin solving the problem of supersonic flight, flying faster than the speed of sound. NACA’s groups begin to focus research on separate verticals of aerodynamics and they rely on the use of specific mathematicians. They draw women out of the decentralized computing pools and offer them the opportunity even to advance to the rank of engineer. Enough women are drawn out of East computing that it ceases to exist, and most of its work is transferred to West area computing. Dorothy Vaughan rises steadily through the ranks, as she is made a shift supervisor first and then promoted to Section head around 1949, but her position as head of the section is only confirmed in 1951.
Mary Jackson comes from an old family in Hampton, an old and well-educated family. Mary has several relatives who are alumni of the Hampton Institute, and she follows in their footsteps as she enrolls there. She chooses to follow the career path of a teacher much like the rest of her family, but she isn’t able to work too long as a teacher as she is forced to return to Hampton to care for her ailing father. The nepotism laws of the state prevent her from working in the school district like her two siblings, and so Mary is forced to find another means of applying herself. Mary begins working at the front desk of the USO, where she impresses everyone with her charm and intelligence. She marries Levi Jackson and begins to consume herself with her baby, the girl scouts, and several other variations of volunteering. The work at NACA begins to hasten as the USSR and America become involved in the Korean War, where the Russians display their ability for supersonic flight. NACA gains approval from congress to increase the size of its staff. However, an increased amount of scrutiny is directed at the employees as the Rosenberg Trials heighten fears of espionage.
After two years of working in the West area section, Dorothy hands Mary an assignment to work with an engineering group in the East area of the laboratory. She has a jarring experience working in the East area section when she fails to find a women’s washroom. She asks some of the women working in that section and they laugh at her as they stingingly tell her that they have no idea where her kind of washroom is located. Mary is deeply hurt by the comment, and when an assistant section head, Kazimierz Czarnecki, enquires why she is upset, she tells him about her experience with the white women. He encourages her to join his section and promises her the opportunity to work in a pleasant environment where she would be valued for her work. Mary accepts gladly and she soon has the opportunity to prove her worth as she withstands the fury of an angry superior who believes she has made a mistake. It turns out that Mary had been given the wrong figures by the superior himself, which earns Mary the respect of her colleagues.
Katherine Johnson attends her sister-in-law’s wedding in 1952, where she meets Jimmy’s sister, Margaret, and her husband Eric. Eric is the director of Newsome Park in Newport News, and he urges Katherine and Jimmy to relocate to Hampton. He assures them assistance in securing jobs for them, through his contacts in the Shipyards and Langley. The couple decides that the opportunity for better-paying jobs is too good to pass up, and so Jimmy begins working in the shipyards of Newport News, while Katherine temporarily works as a school teacher. Eventually, Katherine’s application to Langley is expected and she joins the West Computing group, where she is pleasantly surprised to find her old neighbor from Sulphur Springs, Dorothy, as the Section head. Katherine proves her mettle relatively quickly, and she is sent off to join one of NACA’s many engineering groups. She becomes fast friends with a white man who also happens to be from West Virginia like her.
Analysis
The role of the community continues to expand in this section of the novel, as the author details the group outings Dorothy and the other black families in the region organized. The resort that they visit outside of the city gives the women and their children the opportunity to freely explore a world filled with signs that reminds them of the discrimination that their people impose upon them. As the country moves out of war and into the time of the cold war, the government begins to realize the poor reputation that segregation gives them on the world stage. The author describes various instances in which international dignitaries are exposed to discrimination while visiting America, and how this treatment pushed nations towards communism in the form of Russia. Dorothy’s advance through the ranks at NACA, along with the advancement of other black women towards engineering paths, shows the changing attitude of the federal government. However, Mary’s humiliating experience while trying to find a washroom in the East section reveals the entrenched racism of segregation that continues to haunt even a place as forward-thinking as Langley.
