Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

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historian; thanks to her, thousands of interviews, wind tunnel test logs, photos, personnel documents, org charts, articles, and other primary materials that bear witness to Langley’s extraordinary history are available to the public via the NASA Langley Cultural Resources website and related YouTube channel. So much of the connective tissue of this story came from the untold hours I spent consulting the information she so expertly recovered and curated. Belinda Adams, Jane Hess, Janet Mackenzie, Sharon Stack, and Donna Speller Turner all shared recollections both of the technical work they were involved in and of the changing opportunities for women at Langley over the years. Harold Beck and Jerry Woodfill entertained my technical
questions regarding the months leading up to John Glenn’s orbital flight and the crisis of Apollo 13, respectively. My interview with engineer Thomas Byrdsong, who reminisced about being one of Langley’s first black male engineers, is a bittersweet memory because it occurred less than a month before he passed away. This book would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of the women who lived the history, and their friends, families, and colleagues. Bonnie Kathaleen Land, my former Sunday School teacher, has the distinction of being the very first person I interviewed for this book, in 2010; she passed away in 2012 at ninety-six years old. Thanks to Ellen Strother, Wanda Jackson, and Janice “Jay” Johnson for
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DEDICATION To my parents, Margaret
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CONTENTS Dedication Author’s Note
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About the Author Credits Copyright
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PROLOGUE Mrs. Land worked as a comp
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art collection, and haunted local a
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father drove the twenty minutes fro
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My dad joined Langley in 1964 as a
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ent on studying electrical engineer
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of our social life. Every summer, m
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oardrooms to have an inkling of the
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I had known more than that number j
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who made up the majority of Langley
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lack and white women who had been h
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youth or returned to life, I starte
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But before a computer became an ina
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CHAPTER ONE A Door Opens Melvin But
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one of the research facility’s ex
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disseminating its findings to the m
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had only provided the Army Air Corp
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engineers parked the planes in the
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airplane models tested in the tunne
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conscripted what seemed like entire
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thousand Negroes to the nation’s
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of the defense industry, and Execut
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The Warehouse Building, a brand-new
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law—and Virginia custom—kept hi
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e moved. The black female mathemati
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The laundry room was both one of th
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at the bottom of the war’s great
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In the summer of 1943, Dorothy jump
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ace. She did nothing to draw attent
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City, Missouri. Her own mother died
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little while, will look on with int
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either to her race or to her gender
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school year. The Depression-fueled
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Farmville’s Beulah AME Church, it
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Dorothy’s house on South Main sat
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Bemis Laboratory, graduates of Engi
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Teacher, preacher, doctor, lawyer
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CHAPTER THREE Past Is Prologue The
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leadership and creativity to mainta
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sale, each purchase a small offset
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made up her mind. Once Dorothy made
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The Colored waiting room at the Gre
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father’s extended absences, they
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Dorothy, who knew the call of the o
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Katherine lived in Marion, Virginia
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ending graduate school admission po
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domestic life winning out over care
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Tidewater region advanced toward Do
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etreated against the rolling tide o
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war towns like summer rain. Negro r
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usinesses sprinted to keep pace. Lo
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largest defense housing project—t
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existence was reduced to its simple
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segregation laws were designed to r
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with people who had stepped beyond
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Practices Committee brought about a
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endless abuse at the hands of white
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Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Pract
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eloquent sermons and maverick views
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What are we fighting for? they aske
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lessings of democracy was the featu
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of government just as surely as the
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either side—that sealed her statu
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whose company, J. S. Darling and So
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futuristic aspect of the landscape
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the desks, plying the machines for
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Wilberforce. By securing jobs in La
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and supervised Margery Hannah and t
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number and complexity, an employee
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into the “slow but deadly” SBD
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practical footwear that could stand
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proscribed in the same fashion. The
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Commonwealth of Virginia’s discri
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new sign just as blankly menacing a
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The Manns lived on Hampton Institut
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leader of all black colleges in pro
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openings with the same care and pro
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openly defied southern conventions.
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pragmatic majority, the West Comput
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a neighboring table; they just want
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Miriam Mann, and Kathryn Peddrew we
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CHAPTER SIX War Birds Readers of bl
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1944 the 332nd was flying North Ame
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most powerful offensive weapons—a
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committee. Amelia Earhart nearly lo
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thought they had a better way to do
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in one of the wind tunnels, shoulde
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Turbulent flows, like the swirl and
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identifying how to make a good plan
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owboat. But in order to accelerate
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—the West Area Computers received
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lost their X designation—the B-29
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ased on testing worked in the small
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pulleth a boner of any kind whatsoe
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work was making a difference in the
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CHAPTER SEVEN The Duration The firs
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Newsome Park, picking up the keys t
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Lassiter Courts, Orcutt Homes, and
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exhorted residents to turn out for
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children on a separate path forward
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can’t-get-there-from-here points
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to be the war to truly end all wars
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had come economic security, and a g
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kept the poor of all races divided
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and Copeland Parks under slum clear
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might have missed her calling in th
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dressed up and met the Manns at the
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and pain lay in store for the unfor
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including the principal, made less
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Joshua and Joylette Coleman’s fou
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Virginia State Institute. Income fr
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and Katherine and her sister took j
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was, like W. E. B. Du Bois and Book
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with one hand and just as quickly e
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opened and on humiliating terms.”
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off to West Virginia, they got marr
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the ruling. Rather than fight, Holt
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the professors treated her fairly,
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passage of time, it was easy to bel
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The youngest Vaughan children were
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Miriam Mann, and the Peddrews— Ka
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Institute’s bookkeeper and local
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herself from the leftovers. She did
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the region like waves on the shores
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laboratory when they were ready to
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Nearly to a woman, the West Compute
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who supported their factory workers
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1934, it was as a subprofessional s
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numbers that bedeviled her days. Sh
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imperative of drag cleanup—the pr
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approached Mach 1, or 100 percent o
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NACA’s first female engineer and
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eached the end of the road. Over th
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had no research credit to her name.
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Arkansas AM&N, a black college that
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movies at the Hampton Institute the
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Marge’s upward move resulted in o
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the women were proficient in basic
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Loads Building to help the women de
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Blanche turned her back on the grou
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cure an illness that would eventual
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laws of the state applied just as v
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knew it, and her bosses eventually
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the laboratory during the war, woul
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“Confederate-set inferno” that
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Hampton Institute campus, was like
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school system already employed two
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tireless service, religious devotio
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the King Street USO and the end of
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their lives. With a leader as creat
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“Hold on a minute!” she said su
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passed through the office, she was
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would not back down before any riva
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As a plane accelerated from high su
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known only as Project 506 was revea
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trial was all the evidence many cit
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The Stability Research Division, wh
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empowerment and one of the leaders
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Even A. Philip Randolph, an avowed
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estaurants in Maryland. The humilia
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teeth of the wartime mandate that h
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government. Among the middle-class
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CHAPTER ELEVEN The Area Rule In the
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East Area might put in a phone call
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same workplace as her white counter
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good nature and prodigious research
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paid close attention to her surroun
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proven when Langley built a small t
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and gained a measure of local celeb
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safer planes. Of course, the NACA w
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take a leave of absence from the wo
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engineering positions through the C
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eferring to the black engineers who
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do anything to impress. John Becker
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morning until the time they put on
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CHAPTER TWELVE Serendipity It had a
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Carolina. The simple but elegant we
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director of the Newsome Park Commun
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summer break from school, the Goble
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Hampton Roads was far from Jimmy’
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heat; many was the night she pined
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oth as a mathematician and as a man
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a job that paid her three times her
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Langley for a two-day conference on
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would both depend on the events in
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prejudice. But these days, there wa
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mind focusing on the good fortune t
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month probational appointment. Succ
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an assistant division chief for man
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was a keeper, and they had no inten
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her inquiries with gusto: they coul
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day, she sat in a dark room and pee
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sky. That research, and other inves
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all as smart as whips. There was no
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outine, another reminder of the cas
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Virginia accent, Katherine might ha
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Katherine after two years in Newpor
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success that included home ownershi
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imagine a dream house but to plan t
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widow and her three adolescent daug
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the Christmas holidays, she accompa
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world that she would teach Roman nu
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feel their weight on her own should
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thirty-eight years old, she found h
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dubbed the American Century. Jet en
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gunmetal-gray block to solve engine
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trajectory analyses in a way that s
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The female mathematicians’ job se
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to sever the link between separate
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courageous teenagers set in motion
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comers. It held one engineering cou
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declared his pleading moot. As Hamp
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fit for the job. He was white, male
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suggested that she enroll in the la
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had been forced to sue the Universi
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too hard, her parents had worked to
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combine the resources to build a be
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named Gerald Rainey. Rainey instruc
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some of the staff had to the presen
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answered as they had each time thei
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moved from shadow to sun, the purpl
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crisis unfolded over days, each mor
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American democracy. That is, until
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the way to underground refuge from
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declared, was nothing less than a t
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editorial in the Cleveland Call and
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can’t let them beat us, she thoug
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Avenue School, was black. Most of t
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Mann (unrelated to West Computing
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father taught her the tricks like p
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the time she turned five, Desma Man
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Calloway’s niece attended in the
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Greensboro public school system. Ch
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United Negro College Fund. “I’v
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United States still struggled to fi
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN What a Difference a
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little too far out to warrant syste
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Physicists, chemists, geologists, a
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with the answer. Space had long bee
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With the US government desperate to
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louder, engineers from PARD and the
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NACA’s three main laboratories. T
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fundamental problems of flight beca
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The defense machine’s hunger virt
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attenuated over time. Dismantling E
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children. An engineer’s wife gave
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yield their seats in the “white
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public school that tried to integra
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ending West Area Computing only aft
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United States.” It would take a l
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public operations of the military s
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assistant director, Floyd Thompson,
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1980s, but with the modesty charact
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With their educations on track and
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Vaughan a fresh start as well. She
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automobile than a baby carriage,”
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put forth a vague, practically usel
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Ray Moulton. So the engineers, who
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the Monroe calculator and filling o
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news. But however close she sat to
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designed to clarify the marching or
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answer nature’s call—a law she
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eyes of their bosses. Five out of t
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interactions with the men. Too much
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withstand pressure. Their path to a
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everyone who had helped her to reac
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN With All Deliberat
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creating a brain trust at Mother La
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Virginia closed the public schools,
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School. The school board, however,
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their mother made regular appearanc
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into practice. James A. Johnson, bo
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together at dances and dinner parti
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lead, it was the simplest, fastest,
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enough to fit into the lunchbox of
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To the engineers on Katherine’s d
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thousands of woman-hours computing
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Skopinski. Working with Skopinski a
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—the fact that it was not perfect
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Angle report was the work of the Fl
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leary-eyed days of 1959, she accept
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had been set the year before by an
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weekend, approached. Mary helped he
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fifty thousand boys gearing up to c
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adolescent insolence and tears be d
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Entering the derby was tantamount t
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open to black boys, would have reje
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Four-foot Supersonic Pressure Tunne
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looked like them. Serving as the le
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and returned with tales for her you
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at the summit of the Twenty-Fifth S
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hour. His family fell upon him in a
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else might be possible? Achievement
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CHAPTER TWENTY Degrees of Freedom I
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arrested this afternoon when I went
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carrying a full semester of courses
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lack president at the helm for the
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moved: they defunded the entire cou
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already found permanent positions i
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promoted from an all-female service
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girls, Dorothy made a date with the
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correct order. As powerful as ACD
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put all available resources behind
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unpredictable from the start: on Ja
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thorough plan. Now they executed it
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only fifteen minutes and twenty-two
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of eighteen thousand people. The bu
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Side, Katherine’s former colleagu
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suborbital flight, came and went in
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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Out of the Past,
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velocity, the aerodynamic pressure
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from the capsule in the Back River
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Eisenhower’s watch. Additional te
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full checkout of his flight plan. B
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machines’ data only to find error
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The space age and television were c
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pushing for answers to their inquir
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It was at Langley where the progres
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ange for work. The Scout rocket had
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whose greatest talents had been rec
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of accident, harmony, favor, wisdom
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guide and control the rocket and ca
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world. On the map were inscribed si
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ut it faced computer glitches and c
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of sending her numbers to be checke
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orbits. But then, during the first
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just minutes before was preparing h
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News: along the shipyard, over the
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1962, a glamorous Katherine Johnson
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO America Is for E
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space vehicle.” The document, cre
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Randolph brought together a group t
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the crowd, easing into his prepared
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through the doors at Langley, the w
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Virginia State University in Peters
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church with her husband and two you
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asis. They hosted card parties and
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their favorites. Christine Darden a
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plans were destroyed in the Februar
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up. The command service module was
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oard the spacecraft and the astrona
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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE To Boldly Go I
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the janitresses and washerwomen and
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window, all observing the same thin
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The intensity of the last few days
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around the country ranged from mode
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get past the bellman—delights lik
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needs of the jet set at the Greenbr
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in the trenches of Mission Control.
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optimism, a certain idealism about
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South. The bill only made it over t
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others found themselves the only bl
Page 711 and 712:
Star Trek landed in American homes
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That weekend Nichols attended a cel
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How could Katherine not be a fan? E
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immediately. Even without the press
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nights in front of the Friden calcu
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Aldrin on the Moon would have a bri
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EPILOGUE It’s the question that c
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fingerprint on what is considered h
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Katherine and her colleague Al Hame
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glamorous days of the space program
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Virginia. And a charter high school
Page 733 and 734: was from her descriptions to me in
Page 735 and 736: waiting for the rest of us to catch
Page 737 and 738: dream of Dr. King that had rung out
Page 739 and 740: Apollo program was clamorous, but t
Page 741 and 742: new decade were less glamorous, but
Page 743 and 744: agency would never return to the gl
Page 745 and 746: computers in aeronautical research,
Page 747 and 748: the third member of Mary and Kaz’
Page 749 and 750: in other workplaces, a prime locati
Page 751 and 752: wasn’t wired to take the easy roa
Page 753 and 754: determined to push for opportunitie
Page 755 and 756: good-bye to one of my favorite “c
Page 757 and 758: gave Gloria the chance to advance f
Page 759 and 760: who spent the summer interning with
Page 761 and 762: to “reprogram” the computers in
Page 763 and 764: Jackson Sr., had spent the end of h
Page 765 and 766: een an exciting place in the run-up
Page 767 and 768: Christine went directly to the divi
Page 769 and 770: esearchers Richard Seabass and Albe
Page 771 and 772: An upper-level supervisor denied he
Page 773 and 774: chart and showed it to the head of
Page 775 and 776: Butler, a white man, who also held
Page 777 and 778: was perhaps the only photographic e
Page 779 and 780: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The title of this b
Page 781 and 782: comprehensive database of all the f
Page 783: Museum for inviting me to be part o
Page 787 and 788: instrumental in helping me reconstr
Page 789 and 790: Wynn have been my hometown cheering
Page 791 and 792: of the book proposal, improving it
Page 793 and 794: National Aeronautics and Space Admi
Page 795 and 796: Baltimore Afro-American. Archive ac
Page 797 and 798: PDF and ebook formats at http://his
Page 799 and 800: interviews with prominent African A
Page 801 and 802: Katherine G. Johnson, Newport News,
Page 803 and 804: Champine, Gloria. He’s Got the Ri
Page 805 and 806: History of the NACA and NASA, 1915-
Page 807 and 808: Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War Civil Rig
Page 809 and 810: Aeronautical Laboratory, 1917- 1958
Page 811 and 812: New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. K
Page 813 and 814: Pearcy, Arthur. Flying the Frontier
Page 815 and 816: Action 1940-1972. Baltimore: Johns
Page 817 and 818: Economic Research, 2004, http://www
Page 819 and 820: Gainer, Mary E. and Robert C. Moyer
Page 821 and 822: Tunnels.” Ebony Magazine, August
Page 823 and 824: “USO Secretary Weds Navy Man.”
Page 825 and 826: xvi two white head computers: Blanc
Page 827 and 828: 1943, NARA Phil. 1 Every morning at
Page 829 and 830: 2012), 11. 3 the largest industry i
Page 831 and 832: 7 practical solutions: In the NACA
Page 833 and 834: 10 supported three workers: Kathryn
Page 835 and 836:
microfilm: 1374800, Ancestry.com. 1
Page 837 and 838:
Unemployment in the 1930s,” Journ
Page 839 and 840:
Mann Harris, personal interview, Ma
Page 841 and 842:
20 put war stamps on sale: Ibid. 20
Page 843 and 844:
(Parkersburg, WV: Trans Allegheny B
Page 845 and 846:
6, 2011. CHAPTER 4: THE DOUBLE V 27
Page 847 and 848:
Roads Port of Embarkation in World
Page 849 and 850:
November 13, 1943; “VPS Begins Tw
Page 851 and 852:
33 “There is no power in the worl
Page 853 and 854:
of Virginia”: Hansen, Engineer in
Page 855 and 856:
2014; Miriam Mann Harris, “Miriam
Page 857 and 858:
James A. Johnson, personal intervie
Page 859 and 860:
NASA and Langley archives at the La
Page 861 and 862:
51 flying North American P-51 Musta
Page 863 and 864:
Aeronautics 1915-1958 (Washington,
Page 865 and 866:
Paige, “Newsome Park Echoes,” N
Page 867 and 868:
1945. 66 their white, Gentile-only
Page 869 and 870:
1944. CHAPTER 8: THOSE WHO MOVE FOR
Page 871 and 872:
The History of the Greenbrier, 113.
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73 received an offer to join the in
Page 875 and 876:
2013. 75 walked away from an offer
Page 877 and 878:
79 just $96: Martha J. Bailey and W
Page 879 and 880:
formed after the Langley laboratory
Page 881 and 882:
Memorandum for Section Heads and Di
Page 883 and 884:
aerodynamics text High Speed Wing T
Page 885 and 886:
Laboratory,” Memorandum for the S
Page 887 and 888:
Sanatorium: Ibid. 91 “It appears
Page 889 and 890:
highest honors: “Mary W. Jackson
Page 891 and 892:
97 field trips to the crab factory:
Page 893 and 894:
1940-1949-winners. 100 Project 506:
Page 895 and 896:
September 2003. 102 Eastman Jacobs,
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Employment.” 105 science textbook
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author, Swedish economist Gunnar My
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and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA,
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113 “Jaybird was as fair as it go
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118 the director of the Newsome Par
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122 “The Flight Research Division
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ackground in the work being done by
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131 some of the black employees: Th
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135 Family lore had it: Hylick inte
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138 destined for the lab’s financ
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Cones at Supersonic Speeds,” Lang
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Over US”: New York Times, October
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York Times, July 5, 2008. 154 nonex
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157 Bettye Tillman and JoAnne Smart
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Relating to a Satellite Study, RA-
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January 14-17, 2002, Reno, Nevada,
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school districts to integrate: Smit
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y the President’s Science Advisor
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18, 2014, http://www.marieclaire.co
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181 “they were all the same”: J
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186 Mary Jackson had been one of hi
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and Guide, July 2, 1960. 194 nine-h
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198 So Mary enlisted the help of He
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256. 201 three hundred had joined t
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documents to support this, many in
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1961. 208 Have the chimpanzee: Swen
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214 “a Rube Goldberg device on to
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Saul Gass, “Project Mercury Real-
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career woman!”: “Lady Mathemati
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scenes role helping to organize the
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Apollo 11 Moon Landing,” Smithson
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lack publications, its small blacka
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243 face-to-face with Dr. Martin Lu
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246 “grand tour” of the outer p
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249 “They are loud in their prais
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R. Benson, Quieting the Boom: The S
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“Mary W. Jackson, Federal Women
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15. Gloria’s father’s crew work
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man: Christine Darden, The History
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Champine, personal interview, July
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Aerospace Mechanics Division, 182 A
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218, 221, 223 atomic war, 98, 151-1
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“masked” around whites, 109 Moo
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Colored waiting room, 22 entering a
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Cherry, Mary, 16 Civil Rights Act (
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Cold War “Communist” epithet, 6
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“fly-by-wire” Mercury missions,
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See also mathematicians men as, 205
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Darling Stadium, 225 “data analys
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Eisenhower, Dwight D. Introduction
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significance to blacks, 15-16, 32,
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Goble, James Francis “Jimmy” as
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electricity rationing and wind tunn
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West Computing section head, xvii,
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604 and 650 for trajectories, 138 7
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Girl Scout leader, 95, 97-98, 108,
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25, 75-76 homeowner, 132-133, 185-1
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Keating, Jean Clark (scientist), 17
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Rosenberg trial repercussions, 101-
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Malvestuto, Frank, 112 Maneuver Loa
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acial integration of women, 205 sal
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Moon shot cost of space program, 24
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Joseph McCarthy target, 102 teacher
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charter of, 171 cost of space progr
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newspapers. See black newspapers Ni
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Presidential Medal of Freedom, 172,
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221, 258 trajectories, 189-191, 214
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Robinson, Jackie, 140 Robinson, Spo
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International Geophysical Year, 162
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East End, 29-30, 61-62 federal defe
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Smart, JoAnne, 157 Smith, Benjamin
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illness, 89-91 West Computing secti
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airmen Taylor, Ophelia (West Comput
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transonic region, 100, 110-111, 137
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125-126 Langley first day, 37, 39,
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size increase, 41, 107, 111 West Co
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Mary Winston women author Doris Coh
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Young, P. B., 34 Young, Pearl FBI q
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CREDITS Cover design by Elsie Lyons
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HarperCollins e-books. FIRST EDITIO
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New Zealand HarperCollins Publisher
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