AT THE MOVIES
Summary of ‘Hidden Figures’
“Hidden Figures” is a 2016 dramatic film, based
on the non-fiction book of the same name, that
recounts the involvement of three female African
American mathematicians in NASA’s space race
against the Soviet Union. It follows the women’s
triumphs over racism and sexism as they rise
through the ranks at NASA to eventually work on
the historic launch and safe return of John Glenn,
the first American to orbit the Earth. The film is
directed by Theodore Melfi with Taraji Henson as
Katherine Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Dorothy
Vaughan and Janelle Monde as Mary Jackson. It has
received box office success and critical praise for
being a crowd-pleasing film that sheds light on a
lesser-known part of history.
NASA photo
Pictured from left to right are Dorothy
Vaughan, with other women who worked with
NASA: Leslie Hunter and Vivian Adair.
The real African-American women
of ‘Hidden Figures’
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson was a physicist
and mathematician at NASA, who
was known for her accurate calcula
tions. She was bom in 1918 in
Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. She’d
been a teacher and a stay-at-home
mom before NASA’s predecessor,
National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA), hired her in
1953 to be a “computer” doing math
ematical measurements and calcula
tions. She calculated the trajectory of
Alan Shepard, the first American in
space in 1961. Even after NASA start
ed using electronic computers, John
Glenn requested for her to recheck the
calculations for his Friendship 7 flight
that made him the first American to
orbit the Earth. Her calculations were
also critical to the success of the
Apollo moon landing.
She worked for NASA until 1986.
In 2015, she received the Presidential
Medal of Freedom from President
Barack Obama. Last year, the
Katherine G. Johnson Computational
Research Facility was dedicated at
NASA’s Langley Research Center in
Hampton, Virginia, where Johnson
first started working for NASA.
Dorothy Vaughan
Dorothy Vaughan was a mathe
matician bom in 1910 in Kansas City,
Missouri. She started working at
NASA in 1943 at the West Area
Computers of the Langley Research
Center. She was promoted to the
area’s supervisor in 1949, becoming
the First African American woman to
supervise staff at the center. Katherine
Johnson was among her employees
there.
To prepare for the coming of digi
tal computers, she taught herself and
her staff the programming language of
FORTRAN. She later headed the pro
gramming section of the Analysis and
Computation Division at Langley. She
retired from NASA in 1971. She
passed way at the age of 98 in 2008.
Mary Jackson
Mary Jackson was a mathemati
cian and aerospace engineer bom in
1921 in Hampton, Virginia. She start
ed work at the Langley Research
Center in 1951. After taking advanced
engineering classes, she became
NASA’s first black female engineer.
She rose to the most senior title in the
engineering department and then
served as an administrator in the
Equal Opportunity Specialist field.
She retried from NASA in 1985. She
passed away in 2005 at age 83.