Hidden figures Prologue - Chapter 4
Margot Shetterly describes a meeting with Kathleen Land, a woman who had worked as a human computer for NASA. She meets Mrs. Land through her father, a retired climate scientist, who turned out to be a trove of information about the role of black women in NASA. The author had grown up in Hamilton, Virginia, where she had no dearth of black role models that had succeeded in Science and Technology. She realized much later the difficulties that these professionals had faced working in the segregated south, and that their struggle had paved the way for members of the future generations. She grew curious about the lives of the black women that had worked as computers for NASA, and that research led her to write the book.
The Langley Aeronautic Laboratory was a civilian establishment that worked under the umbrella of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which worked closely with the armed forces. The engineers at the Hampton-based laboratory tested the aerodynamics of newly produced flying machines using a wind tunnel. Their work was invaluable, and their contribution to the WWII effort was invaluable. The laboratory, like other research-based institutions, required mathematicians to support their engineers, but they could not find enough men to fulfill the requirements so they had to consider women. The hiring of white women as mathematicians caused quite a hubbub when it began in 1935, but even this drastic change failed to curtail the ever-increasing list of vacancies. Melvin Butler, the head of personnel at NACA, quietly prepared a segregated workplace in a warehouse that his brother had just recently finished constructing, for black female computers in 1943.
Dorothy displayed exceptional Mathematics skills from childhood, an ability that allowed her to skip grades and get a scholarship to one of the premier private universities for black people in the country. She excelled all through her college course and received yet another scholarship to study Math at the exceptional Howard University. However, the great depression forced her to make some difficult choices about her career so that she could better support her struggling parents. Dorothy chose to pursue further instruction in education and secured a job as a teacher for black schools, the kind of work that forced her to relocate to remote areas with scarce resources. She met her husband, Howard, when she came to FarmVille as a teacher, and they eventually got married to one another. Dorothy Vaughan then began to live with her husband’s parents and grandparents along with her children while Howard toured the country working as a bellman for luxurious resorts and hotels. Her work as a teacher failed to pay her a decent wage, and so she worked as a laundrywoman for the army, exhausting work that took her away from her children but allowed her to make a better salary than as a teacher. However, she jumps at the opportunity to work as a mathematician for NACA, when she learns of the vacancies. She applies to both the laundry and NACA at the same time.
Dorothy hears nothing back from NACA for six months after she sends them the exhaustive job application, and she has nearly forgotten about it when she receives their letter. She is offered a position as a mathematician until the end of the war with wages that are double the salary of her teaching job. She leaves for Newport News and thinks about her already strained relationship with her husband. Dorothy and Howard have been kept away from one another because of their work, yet they both understand each other kept well. She had once taken her children down to a resort in Virginia where Howard worked, and had gotten to know the Coleman family since Mr. Coleman worked with Howard at the resort. The youngest daughter of Mr. Coleman was called Katherine, and she shared a lot of similarities with Dorothy Vaughan. Katherine had accelerated through school, and received scholarships to colleges and then universities, much like Dorothy. Katherine had settled down with Jimmy, a chemistry teacher, and she had begun to work as a teacher as well. Eventually, Katherine would follow Dorothy to the NACA laboratory in Hampton.
Dorothy moved to Newport News and secured a rented room for herself in Newsome Park with the help of her workplace since there was quite a lot of dearth of living space. The unstoppable machine of the military-industrial complex brought great economic success to the area of Hampton Roads, along with several immigrants. The participation of black people in the army and industry was paramount but it also raised the question of discrimination. The black people were being asked to fight the racists of Germany but they were expected to bear the racism of the segregated south, leading to a concept called “double consciousness” coined by the black author W.E.B. Du Bois.
Analysis
The book opens with a prologue that details how the author was unfamiliar with the challenges that black people encountered in the world of science and technology. This encourages the reader to see the book as a path of discovery that is being undertaken along with the author’s help. In these initial chapters of the book, Margot gives us a detailed understanding of the socio-economic climate during the 40s and the discriminatory attitude that pervaded American society at the time. These factual descriptions of the situation foreshadow the challenges the women we follow are going to face when they join the workplace. The author also places importance on describing the impressive academic achievements of Katherine and Dorothy, both of whom showed promise from an early age. Yet, both of these women were forced to prioritize things besides education, choices that would have been a lot simpler if they had been born white. However, both women display great pragmatism about their lot in life, as they both find employment to support their family knowing their skills exceed the menial jobs they find.
