Hidden Figures: Young Readers Edition

The four women on whom the text focuses—Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden—have several things in common. They loved math, worked as schoolteachers after college, and did groundbreaking mathematical work as “computers” for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Beginning in 1943, the government hired hundreds of women to work as mathematicians, but these four women were special. They achieved great things despite the racial discrimination in American society and the limited opportunities for African American women.

After the Civil War in the 1800s, the United States abolished slavery, and African Americans finally became full American citizens. However, many states in the South passed racial segregation laws that kept Black people and white people separate and continued to deny African Americans many civil rights. These laws were known as Jim Crow laws and meant that white people and Black people could not share many public spaces like restaurants, schools, and bathrooms. Black people and white people could not get married or be treated in the same hospital. Even though African Americans were allowed to vote, many local laws made voting almost impossible for Black people.

In the 1930s, the United States experienced the Great Depression. Jobs became very difficult to find, and it was hard for African Americans to get work. When World War II started, many Black men and women enlisted in the military, hoping to make a better life and illustrate their “loyalty and patriotism” to help Black people earn equal rights (8). The war also created an opportunity for Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden to become mathematicians, changing their lives forever.

In 1943, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) placed ads looking for women who wanted to “reduce [their] household duty” and do jobs that were formerly reserved for men (10). World War II meant many men were away fighting, so employers sought more female workers. NACA, a branch of the government that studied the science of flying, was on a mission “to help the United States develop the most powerful and efficient airplanes in the world” to win the war (11).

NACA’s headquarters was the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Langley, Virginia. There, engineers designed and tested new planes, first in special wind tunnels and then with test pilots. The employees in the Langley Laboratory worked hard and knew that their jobs would help to win the war.

Building airplanes is complicated, like an elaborate “physics experiment.” Because physics involves a lot of math, the laboratory needed lots of mathematicians. Beginning in 1935, the Langley Laboratory hired female mathematicians. However, they were called “subprofessionals” or “computers” and were paid less than male employees. These women were responsible for doing all the math that electronic computers might do today.

In 1943, the laboratory struggled to find as many human computers as they needed, so they began hiring African American women. The federal government and the defense industry were desegregated, so Black and white people could work together, and the government started new programs at Black colleges to train African Americans for the jobs that were needed during wartime. Many people applied for these new jobs, including the computer positions at the Langley Laboratory.

Previously, the only Black employees at the laboratory had been janitors and cooks. Now, the new team of Black mathematicians worked in a separate building in the West Area, and the “white computers” worked in the East Area. Even though having Black computers was new, most engineers were glad to have more help with the work.

Outside of the Laboratory, Hampton, Virginia, was still segregated, and the Langley Laboratory put up a sign that read “Colored Girls” to indicate which bathroom the new Black computers could use. It was difficult for these Black women to start a new job in an “unfamiliar environment.” Still, they were excited about the opportunity to prove themselves and help their country.

Chapter 3 introduces Dorothy Vaughan, the first of the Langley Laboratory’s important computers. Dorothy was born in 1920 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her mother died when she was two years old, but her stepmother always encouraged her to work hard in school. Dorothy was the valedictorian of her high school class and studied math on a scholarship at Wilberforce University in Ohio. Her professor encouraged her to pursue graduate studies, but Dorothy decided to get a job to help support her family. She got a job teaching math and English at a Black school, which was “the most stable career at the time for black women with a college degree” (21). However, because of the Great Depression, the school closed, and Dorothy had to look for work again. She found another teaching job in North Carolina, but halfway through the year, that school closed, too. She worked as a waitress until 1931, when she got another teaching job in Farmville, Virginia.

In Farmville, Dorothy met Howard Vaughan, who traveled up and down the United States working seasonally as a bellboy in luxury hotels. The two fell in love, got married, and Dorothy settled into “steady work and a fulfilling life” in the small town (22).

In the summer of 1943, Dorothy was looking for a second job to earn extra money. Teaching gave her “status,” but the pay was very low. She saw an ad for a laundry worker at a nearby army training camp. She also saw a flyer for the Langley Laboratory’s mathematics positions. However, she assumed that the advertisement was meant for the “white, well-to-do students” at a nearby college (23), so she ignored it. Not long after, Dorothy saw an article about African American women who had graduated from an engineering program and begun working in a laboratory. The job at the Langley Laboratory was an opportunity “so unusual it hadn’t been dreamed of yet” (24). It was very different from the usual jobs for Black women, like teaching or housecleaning. Dorothy filled out applications for the laundry job and the mathematician job, writing on the Langley Laboratory application that she could start in 48 hours if hired.

Dorothy began the school year as usual, teaching in an overcrowded high school and tutoring students who needed extra help. World War II was always on people’s minds, and Dorothy added a “Wartime Mathematics” unit to her classes that taught students how to create a household budget and manage the wartime ration books of coupons for food and supplies.

In November, Dorothy received a response from the Langley Laboratory. She was offered a job as a mathematician with a salary of $2,000 per year, more than twice what she made as a teacher. Even though the job was an excellent opportunity for Dorothy, she had “mixed feelings.” Langley was more than four hours away, and Dorothy had to leave her four children behind. Since she would be working six days a week, she would only see her family on holidays. Still, she knew that the job would allow her to better care for her family, so she accepted the position.

Dorothy took the Greyhound bus to Newport News, Virginia, and spent the ride wondering what her new life would be like. She was nervous, but she “banished any self doubt” and looked forward to the opportunity to support her country and her family (29).

In the early 1940s, the Hampton Roads region of Virginia became an important “military capital,” and the population grew as people moved in to fill wartime jobs. Many men were away fighting in the war, so women did “all kinds of jobs” (30), even ones that were only for men before the war. The government built new housing for the influx of residents, including a subdivision of 1,200 homes for African Americans called Newsome Park.

Dorothy rented a room in an older Black couple’s home and commuted by bus to the laboratory. Her commute was made more difficult by segregation laws, and she had to ride behind the “Colored Line” in the back of the bus or stand if the white section at the front was full. Long work weeks, crowded cities, and wartime shortages contributed to the tensions between Black and white people.

This tension had been building for years. In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt promised that everyone had the right to “Four Freedoms,” which Shetterly describes as “freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear” (33). As the United States worked to champion freedom and democracy around the world, African Americans couldn’t help but compare the experiences of oppressed people in other countries to “their own struggles against slavery, unfair treatment, and violence at home” (34). Many African Americans wondered why they should “fight for freedom oversees” when they still experienced discrimination and segregation at home in the United States (34). Therefore, many African Americans began to talk about “double victory.” They would win the war against American enemies abroad and win the victory of freedom and civil rights at home.

Dorothy believed that her work at the Langley Laboratory was supporting both causes. Her work would directly support the war effort, and as one of the first African American women to receive such an opportunity, she could also help the fight for civil rights. On December 1, 1943, the same day that leaders from the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union planned the D-Day invasion of France, Dorothy Vaughan had her first day of work at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.