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Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

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of black men permitted to join that<br />

previously restricted branch of the<br />

American military. Another University of<br />

Michigan engineering grad who followed<br />

Jim Williams’s path to Langley, Thomas<br />

Byrdsong was a frequent guest at Mary<br />

and Levi Jackson’s welcoming dinner<br />

table, always pleased to sample Levi<br />

Jackson’s delicious home cooking and<br />

enjoy the warmth of an evening<br />

unwinding with the down-to-earth<br />

couple. There, they could talk Reynolds<br />

numbers and aeronautical shop and let<br />

their guard down about the challenges of<br />

their jobs. Being on the leading edge of<br />

integration was not for the faint of heart.<br />

Fresh out of the University of<br />

Michigan, Thomas Byrdsong had been<br />

assigned to a senior engineer in the<br />

Sixteen-foot Transonic Dynamics Tunnel

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