Top 4 Hidden figures quotes
“Growing up in Hampton, the face of science was brown like mine.”
Margot Lee Shetterly, Prologue
The author raises a crucial aspect of her childhood that several other black children did not have in their lives. Margot grew up in a black community of Hampton, where most of her parent's friends were black men and women working in prolific areas of science. Having these role models to look up to at such a young age, allowed her the ability to perceive a limitless future for herself.
“They wielded their work like weapons, warding off the presumption of inferiority because they were Negro or female.”
The narrator, Chapter 5
The attitude in West Computing could be defined by the adage, double the work for half the progress. The black women working in the West Computing section understood that they were discriminated against because of their race, but they were determined to make an impression on those around them through the nature of their work rather than just their appearance. They worked harder than anyone else to ensure that none of them was ever perceived as being slovenly, lazy, or incapable.
“No one should feel that he or she did not have a part in the bombing of Japan."
Henry Reid, Chapter 6
Henry Reid was the Langley manager at the time the US dropped the atomic bomb, which eventually led to the end of the war. He made it a point to thank and congratulate everyone at the laboratory after the bombing of Japan since the work done in the lab had allowed it to proceed to its completion.
“Get the girl to check the numbers.”
John Glenn, Chapter 21
John Glenn goes on to become the first American to complete a manned orbit around the earth, but the calculations for his launch are performed by NASA’s newly inducted IBM machines. John Glenn, being a pilot, does not truly trust anything that is fully automated, and so he specifically asks for the calculations to be confirmed by Katherine, whom he has heard so much about.
