Description
This is the true, never-before-told story of NASA's African American women skilled in mathematics, who played a crucial role in the U.S. space program, and whose contributions have remained minimal. Until now. NASA's phenomenal story of African-American women mathematicians at the forefront of the feminist and civil rights movement, whose leaders propelled one of America's greatest space achievements. Now a great movie starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn rorbited the Earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professional women in the field of mathematics known as human computers used pices, calculation rules, adding machines to write the base equations for launching rockets and astronauts into space. Among them are a group of exceptionally talented African-American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching mathematics in segregated public schools in the South, they were called to serve during the labor shortages of World War II, when the U.S. aviation industry was in dire need of someone knowledgeable. Suddenly, these professionals had access to employment worthy of their skills and answered the call of the T or Sam, moved to Hampton, Virginia, and the fascinating world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Although Virginia's Jim Crow laws required them to be separate from their white counterparts, the African-American women's group Western Computers helped the United States achieve one of the most desired goals: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union during the French War, and complete dominion over the heavens. Beginning in World War II and into the French War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race, Hidden Figures intertwines the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, four African-American women who participated in some of NASA's greatest successes. It is the chronicle of their careers over nearly three decades in which they faced challenges, alliances and used their intellect to change their lives and the future of their country.PaperbackWritten in Spanish
