Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

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Virginia, a policy that continued until 1950. West Virginia, however, decided to integrate. Quietly, quickly, and without protest, three “unusually capable” Negro students began graduate studies at West Virginia University in Morgantown in the summer of 1940. The Colemans’ daughter Katherine was one of them, a testament to both her academic talent and a strength of character that could stand up to the isolation and scrutiny that came along with being a black student on the front lines of desegregation. But a master’s degree in math would elude Katherine just as it had Dorothy. After the summer session, Katherine decided to leave WVU’s graduate program for a life as a full-time wife and mother, the call of
domestic life winning out over career ambition. Katherine’s parents loved their son-inlaw, Jimmy, a chemistry teacher whom Katherine met at her first teaching assignment, and they doted on their three granddaughters. Her choice to prioritize family life did nothing to dampen her parents’ pride in her academic achievements. Did she, like Dorothy, ever wonder about where the opportunity might have taken her? Did she imagine what her talent might look like if it were pushed to the limit? Katherine had made her choice only two years earlier. Dorothy’s first big chance was now fifteen years in the past, long enough ago to assume that the die of her life had been irrevocably cast. And yet at the end of November 1943,
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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
Page 47 and 48: thousand Negroes to the nation’s
Page 49 and 50: of the defense industry, and Execut
Page 51 and 52: The Warehouse Building, a brand-new
Page 53 and 54: law—and Virginia custom—kept hi
Page 55 and 56: e moved. The black female mathemati
Page 57 and 58: The laundry room was both one of th
Page 59 and 60: at the bottom of the war’s great
Page 61 and 62: In the summer of 1943, Dorothy jump
Page 63 and 64: ace. She did nothing to draw attent
Page 65 and 66: City, Missouri. Her own mother died
Page 67 and 68: little while, will look on with int
Page 69 and 70: either to her race or to her gender
Page 71 and 72: school year. The Depression-fueled
Page 73 and 74: Farmville’s Beulah AME Church, it
Page 75 and 76: Dorothy’s house on South Main sat
Page 77 and 78: Bemis Laboratory, graduates of Engi
Page 79 and 80: Teacher, preacher, doctor, lawyer
Page 81 and 82: CHAPTER THREE Past Is Prologue The
Page 83 and 84: leadership and creativity to mainta
Page 85 and 86: sale, each purchase a small offset
Page 87 and 88: made up her mind. Once Dorothy made
Page 89 and 90: The Colored waiting room at the Gre
Page 91 and 92: father’s extended absences, they
Page 93 and 94: Dorothy, who knew the call of the o
Page 95 and 96: Katherine lived in Marion, Virginia
Page 97: ending graduate school admission po
Page 101 and 102: Tidewater region advanced toward Do
Page 103 and 104: etreated against the rolling tide o
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Page 107 and 108: usinesses sprinted to keep pace. Lo
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Page 111 and 112: existence was reduced to its simple
Page 113 and 114: segregation laws were designed to r
Page 115 and 116: with people who had stepped beyond
Page 117 and 118: Practices Committee brought about a
Page 119 and 120: endless abuse at the hands of white
Page 121 and 122: Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Pract
Page 123 and 124: eloquent sermons and maverick views
Page 125 and 126: What are we fighting for? they aske
Page 127 and 128: lessings of democracy was the featu
Page 129 and 130: of government just as surely as the
Page 131 and 132: either side—that sealed her statu
Page 133 and 134: whose company, J. S. Darling and So
Page 135 and 136: futuristic aspect of the landscape
Page 137 and 138: the desks, plying the machines for
Page 139 and 140: Wilberforce. By securing jobs in La
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Page 147 and 148: 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
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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
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was from her descriptions to me in
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waiting for the rest of us to catch
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dream of Dr. King that had rung out
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Apollo program was clamorous, but t
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new decade were less glamorous, but
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agency would never return to the gl
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computers in aeronautical research,
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the third member of Mary and Kaz’
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in other workplaces, a prime locati
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wasn’t wired to take the easy roa
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determined to push for opportunitie
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good-bye to one of my favorite “c
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gave Gloria the chance to advance f
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who spent the summer interning with
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to “reprogram” the computers in
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Jackson Sr., had spent the end of h
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een an exciting place in the run-up
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Christine went directly to the divi
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esearchers Richard Seabass and Albe
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An upper-level supervisor denied he
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chart and showed it to the head of
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Butler, a white man, who also held
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was perhaps the only photographic e
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The title of this b
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comprehensive database of all the f
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Museum for inviting me to be part o
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questions regarding the months lead
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instrumental in helping me reconstr
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Wynn have been my hometown cheering
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of the book proposal, improving it
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National Aeronautics and Space Admi
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Baltimore Afro-American. Archive ac
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PDF and ebook formats at http://his
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interviews with prominent African A
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Katherine G. Johnson, Newport News,
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Champine, Gloria. He’s Got the Ri
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History of the NACA and NASA, 1915-
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Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War Civil Rig
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Aeronautical Laboratory, 1917- 1958
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New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. K
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Pearcy, Arthur. Flying the Frontier
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Action 1940-1972. Baltimore: Johns
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Economic Research, 2004, http://www
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Gainer, Mary E. and Robert C. Moyer
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Tunnels.” Ebony Magazine, August
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“USO Secretary Weds Navy Man.”
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xvi two white head computers: Blanc
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1943, NARA Phil. 1 Every morning at
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2012), 11. 3 the largest industry i
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7 practical solutions: In the NACA
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10 supported three workers: Kathryn
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microfilm: 1374800, Ancestry.com. 1
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Unemployment in the 1930s,” Journ
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Mann Harris, personal interview, Ma
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20 put war stamps on sale: Ibid. 20
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(Parkersburg, WV: Trans Allegheny B
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6, 2011. CHAPTER 4: THE DOUBLE V 27
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Roads Port of Embarkation in World
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November 13, 1943; “VPS Begins Tw
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33 “There is no power in the worl
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of Virginia”: Hansen, Engineer in
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2014; Miriam Mann Harris, “Miriam
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James A. Johnson, personal intervie
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NASA and Langley archives at the La
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51 flying North American P-51 Musta
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Aeronautics 1915-1958 (Washington,
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Paige, “Newsome Park Echoes,” N
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1945. 66 their white, Gentile-only
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1944. CHAPTER 8: THOSE WHO MOVE FOR
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The History of the Greenbrier, 113.
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73 received an offer to join the in
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2013. 75 walked away from an offer
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79 just $96: Martha J. Bailey and W
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formed after the Langley laboratory
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Memorandum for Section Heads and Di
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aerodynamics text High Speed Wing T
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Laboratory,” Memorandum for the S
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Sanatorium: Ibid. 91 “It appears
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highest honors: “Mary W. Jackson
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97 field trips to the crab factory:
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1940-1949-winners. 100 Project 506:
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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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