Hidden Figures

by Margot Lee Shetterly

  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 the marvelous tales of Mary Jackson’s rich and active life outside the office.

  Though Gloria Rhodes Champine’s story appears only in the epilogue, there are many chapters in the book that bear her fingerprints. Her understanding of Langley’s airplanes, its culture, and its people have been indispensable to helping me tell this story. Christine Darden is at once enormously talented and disarmingly modest, and it’s a great source of pride that I’ve learned enough about aerodynamics over the course of this research to appreciate the scale of her achievements. Thanks to both of them for the wisdom and encouragement they have given me since Hidden Figures’ beginning.

  Ann Vaughan Hammond, Leonard Vaughan, and Kenneth Vaughan were instrumental in helping me reconstruct the details of their mother, Dorothy Vaughan’s, early life and the trajectory that brought her to Langley. I thank them for allowing me to get to know her through their eyes.

  Jim Johnson and his stories of serving in the Korean War were firsthand evidence of the enduring power of the Double V. Joylette Goble Hylick and Katherine Goble Moore have my utmost admiration for all they have done to preserve the legacy of their mother and the other women whose talents formed the basis for the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.

  The lessons I’ve learned from Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson could fill another book. Her generosity in sharing her life story with me has changed my life, and for that I will be forever grateful.

  Most of this book was written in Valle de Bravo, Mexico; my thanks to all the friends who offered support and encouragement each day. I’m indebted to my “kitchen cabinet,” the people who over the course of the last six years have helped me carry this project over the finish line. Most of this book was written in Valle de Bravo, Mexico. My thanks to all of the friends there who offered daily encouragement and support, especially Marcela Diaz, Jim Duncan, Larry Peterson and Sabine Persicke. Particular mention must go to Margot Lopez who generously lent me her studio whenever I needed a quiet place to meet a deadline. Melanie Adams, Jeffrey Harris, Regina Oliver, Chadra Pittman, and Danielle Wynn have been my hometown cheering squad, never too busy to share contacts, suggestions, or a sympathetic ear. Susan Hand Shetterly, Robert Shetterly, Gail Page, and Caitlin Shetterly never failed to provide insights, wonderful meals, and quiet writing nooks. My siblings Ben Lee, Lauren Lee Colley, and Jocelyn Lee have been a constant source of inspiration, memories, and encouragement.

  From our very first conversation, my literary agent, Mackenzie Brady Watson, has been one of Hidden Figures’ greatest champions. Her expansive vision and business instincts have helped give this story a platform beyond anything I could have imagined.

  As the child of a Hampton University English professor and a NASA research scientist, it was probably inevitable that I would eventually write a book about scientists. Drs. Margaret G. Lee and Robert B. Lee III have made telephone calls on my behalf, set up interviews, arranged meetings, scoured their memories for names and events, offered context and suggestions for telling the history, attended my presentations, made early morning and late-night runs to the airport, received packages, graciously allowed me to turn their home into an office, and supported my writing in countless other ways. Mommy and Daddy, I love you more than words can ever say.

  Finally, no one has given more to this project than my husband, Aran Shetterly. He has read every version of Hidden Figures starting with the very first draft of the book proposal, improving it at every step along the way with his fierce intelligence and editorial savvy. His experience as a writer and researcher has been invaluable in terms of helping me figure out how to plumb archives for the details that turn history into narrative and bring an untold story to life. For the last twelve years, he has been my sounding board, confidant, closest advisor, and partner in all things, and Hidden Figures would not have happened without his support. For everything, Aran: my boundless respect, deepest gratitude, and endless love.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  SOURCES

  Archival Sources

  Daily Press Archives, Newport News Library, Main Street Branch, Newport News, Virginia. Available as microfiche only.

  Farmville Herald Archives, Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia. Available as microfiche only.

  Hampton University Archives, Hampton, Virginia.

  Langley Research Center Archives, Hampton, Virginia.

  National Aeronautics and Space Administration History Office, Washington, DC (NASA HQ). http://history.nasa.gov/hqinventory.pdf.

  National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Regional Facilities:

  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (RG 255); Records of the US Civil Service Commission (RG 146); Records of the War Manpower Commission (RG 211).

  College Park, Maryland: Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Records of the US Department of Education; Records of the Fair Employment Practices Commission.

  Fort Worth, Texas: Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (RG 255), Project Mercury Working Paper Series, nos. 104, 106, 191, 207, 212, and 217.

  St. Louis, Missouri: National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). NPRC documents for deceased Civil Service employees available upon written request. All personnel records cited in the text came from this archive.

  West Virginia State University Archives, Institute, West Virginia.

  Online Sources

  Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com was the source for Census Bureau data; marriage, birth, and death records; and local telephone directories.

  Baltimore Afro-American. Archive accessed through Google Books.

  “Hampton Roads Embarkation Series, 1942–1946,” US Army Signal Corps Photograph Collection, Library of Virginia (HRE), http://www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/treasures/arts/art-m12.htm.

  The History Makers. This searchable video archive is dedicated to the oral histories of prominent contemporary African Americans. Interviews consulted for the book include Christine Darden, Katherine Johnson, Woodrow Whitlow, and James E. West; http://www.thehistorymakers.com/taxonomy/term/7298.

  Johnson Space Center Oral History Project (JSC), http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/oral_histories.htm. Oral histories consulted in this collection include Harold Beck, John Becker, Jerry Bostick, Stefan Cavallo, Gloria Champine, Beverly Swanson Cothren, Annie Easley, John H. Glenn, Jane Hess, Claiborne Hicks, Shirley H. Hinson, Eleanor Jaehnig, Harriet Jenkins, Eldon Kordes, Christopher Kraft, Mary Ann Johnson, Dorothy B. Lee, Glynn Lunney, Charles Matthews, Catherine T. Osgood, Emil Schiesser, Alan Shepard, Milton Silveira, and Ruth Hoover Smull.

  NASA History Series publications (NH). NASA’s lineup of history publications is nothing short of spectacular. Most, including each publication in the list of books below, are available for free in PDF and ebook formats at http://history.nasa.gov/series95.html.

  NASA Langley Archives Collection (LAC), http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Langley_Archives_Collection. The following resources were consulted: Langley Employee Newsletters (LMAL Bulletin (1942–19
44); Air Scoop (1945–1962); Langley Researcher (1963–present)); Langley telephone directories; Oral Histories and Interviews (oral histories and interviews consulted for the book include Ira Abbott, John Becker, Sherwood Butler, T. Melvin Butler, Mary Jackson, W. Kemble Johnson, Arthur Kantrowitz, and Pearl Young); P-51 Mustang Archives Collection; and Langley Historic Site and Building pages.

  NASA Langley Youtube channel. Videos consulted on this channel include interviews with Christine Darden, W. Hewitt Philipps, Richard Whitcomb, and group interviews with former computers (When Computers Were Human and Panel Discussion with Women Computers, moderated by James R. Hansen).

  NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), http://ntrs.nasa.gov/. This fully searchable database contains most of the research reports produced by the NACA and NASA from their inception to the present day.

  National Visionary Leadership Project (NVLN). This video archive houses interviews with prominent African Americans over the age of seventy. Interviews consulted include Oliver Hill and Katherine Johnson.

  New York Age. Archives accessed through Newspapers.com.

  Norfolk Journal and Guide. Archives accessed through the Library of Virginia website, http://www.lva.virginia.gov/.

  Pittsburgh Courier. Archives accessed through Newspapers.com.

  PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

  John Becker, Lynchburg, VA.

  George M. Brooks, Newport News, VA.

  Thomas Byrdsong, Newport News, VA; October 4, 2014.

  Gloria R. Champine, Newport News, VA; January 24, 2014; April 2, 2014.

  Robert S. Conte, White Sulphur Springs, WV.

  Christine M. Darden, Hampton, VA; May 3, 2012.

  Joylette Hylick Goble, Mount Laurel, NJ.

  Ann Vaughan Hammond, Hampton, VA; April 2, 2014; June 30, 2014.

  Miriam Mann Harris, Winston-Salem, NC.

  Jane Hess, Newport News, VA.

  Wythe Holt, Hampton, VA: July 20, 2014.

  Wanda Jackson, Hampton; VA.

  Eleanor Jaehnig.

  James A. Johnson, Newport News, VA; June 11, 2011.

  Janice Johnson, Hampton, VA; April 3, 2014.

  Katherine G. Johnson, Newport News, VA; December 27, 2010; March 6, 2011; March 11, 2011; September 17, 2011; September 27, 2011; September 27, 2013.

  Edwin Kilgore, Newport News, VA; April 3, 2014.

  Elizabeth Kittrell, Yorktown, VA.

  Kathaleen Land, Hampton, VA; December 19, 2010.

  Janet Mackenzie, October 9, 2015, Newport News, VA.

  Katherine Goble Moore, Greensboro, NC: April 13, 2014; July 7, 2014; February 7, 2015.

  Christine Richie, Newport News, VA.

  Debbie Schwarz Simpson; September 12, 2012.

  Sharon Stack, Gloucester, VA; April 22, 2014.

  Elizabeth Kittrell Taylor, Yorktown, VA; July 12, 2014.

  Donna Speller Turner, March 8, 2014.

  Kenneth Vaughan, Hampton, VA; April 2, 2014.

  Leonard Vaughan, Hampton, VA; April 23, 2014.

  Michelle Webb, Hampton, VA; February 19, 2016.

  Barbara Weigel, Newport News, VA.

  Jerry Woodfill, Houston, TX.

  ORAL HISTORY TRANSCRIPTS

  Unpublished Documents

  Beck, Harold. “Project Mercury Planning Activities from 1958 through 1962,” May 2016. Unpublished document in author’s possession.

  Beck, Harold. “Organization Timeline,” May 2016.

  Champine, Gloria. He’s Got the Right Stuff, 2014.

  Fox, Dewey W. A Brief Sketch of the Life of Miss Dorothy L. Johnson. West Virginia African Methodist Episcopal Sunday School Convention, 1926. Pamphlet in author’s possession.

  Jackson, Mary. Obituary.

  Newsome Park Reunion, September 12, 2005.

  Newsome Park Reunion: The Legacy of a Village, September 6, 2006.

  “Notes on Space Technology,” Langley Research Center, 1958, NTRS, http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740074640.pdf.

  Vaughan, Dorothy. Biography, undated.

  SELECTED BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS

  Anderson, Jervis. A. Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.

  Anderson, Karen. Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981.

  Baals, Donald D. and William R. Corliss. Wind Tunnels of NASA. Washington, DC: NASA History Office, 1981.

  Becker, John V. The High Speed Frontier: Case Histories of Four NACA Programs, 1920–1950. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1980.

  Bilstein, Roger. Orders of Magnitude: A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915–1990. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1989.

  Blood, Kathryn. Negro Women War Workers. Washington, DC: US Department of Labor, 1945.

  Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–63. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.

  Burgess, Colin. Friendship 7: The Epic Orbital Flight of John H. Glenn, Jr. New York: Springer Praxis Books, 2015.

  Carpenter, M. Scott, Cooper, Gordon L. et al. We Seven by the Astronauts Themselves. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1962.

  Chambers, Joseph R. The Cave of the Winds: The Remarkable Story of the Langley Full-Scale Wind Tunnel. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2014.

  Clauser, F. H. Preliminary Design of a World Circling Spaceship. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corp., 1947.

  Conte, Robert S. The History of the Greenbrier: America’s Resort. Parkersburg, PA: Trans Allegheny Books, 1989.

  Cooper, Henry S. F. Jr. Thirteen: The Apollo Flight That Failed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

  Davis, Thulani. 1959. New York: Grove Press, 1992.

  Deighton, Len. Goodbye Mickey Mouse. New York: Knopf, 1982.

  Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.

  Engs, Robert Francis. Freedom’s First Generation: Black Hampton, Virginia, 1861–1890. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1979.

  Fairfax, Colita Nichols. Hampton, Virginia. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2005.

  Fries, Sylvia Doughty. NASA Engineers in the Age of Apollo. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1992.

  Gass, Saul I. “Project Mercury Real-Time Computation and Data Flow System.” Washington DC: International Business Machines Corporation, 1961. https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/afips/1961/5059/00/50590033.pdf.

  Golemba, Beverly E. “Human Computers: The Women in Aeronautical Research.” PhD dissertation, St. Leo College, 1994, available at NASA Cultural Resources, http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/crgis/images/c/c7/Golemba.pdf.

  Grier, David Alan. When Computers Were Human. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.

  Grimwood, J. M., C. C. Alexander, and L. S. Swenson Jr. This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury. Washington DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1966.

  Hansen, James R. Engineer in Charge: A History of the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, 1917–1958. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1987.

  Hansen, James R. Spaceflight Revolution: NASA Langley Research Center from Sputnik to Apollo. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1995.

  Harris, Ruth Bates. Harlem Princess: The Story of Harry Delanay’s Daughter. New York: Vantage Press, 1991.

  Herman, Arthur. Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II. New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2012.

  Holt, Natalia. Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars. New York: Little, Brown, 2016.

  Hoover, Dorothy. A Layman Looks With Love At Her Church. Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1970.

  Kalme, Albert P. “Racial Desegregation and Integration in American Education: The Case History of West Virginia State College, 1891–1973.” PhD disser
tation, University of Ottawa, 1976.

  Kessler, James H. et al. Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20th Century. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 1996.

  Kraft, Christopher C. Flight: My Life in Mission Control. New York: Dutton, 2001.

  Kranz, Gene. Failure Is Not an Option. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

  Krislov, Samuel. The Negro in Federal Employment: The Quest for Equal Opportunity. New Orleans: Quid Pro Quo Books, 2012.

  Lewis, Earl. In Their Own Interests: Race, Class and Power in Twentieth-Century Norfolk, Virginia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

  Margo, Robert. Race and Schooling in the South, 1880–1950: An Economic History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950.

  Marsh, Charles F., ed. The Hampton Roads Communities in World War II. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1951/2011.

  McDougall, Walter A. The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

  McNeil, Genna Rae. Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennysylvania Press, 1983.

  Michener, James A. Space: A Novel. New York: Random House, 1982.

  Moulton, Forest Ray. Celestial Mechanics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1914.

  Muse, Benjamin. Virginia’s Massive Resistance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1956.

  Myrdal, Gunnar. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. New York: Harper, 1944.