Hidden Figures

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Hidden Figures Page 37

by Margot Lee Shetterly

Voting Rights Act, 240

  Woolworth’s lunch counter, 201

  See also NAACP

  civil service

  advocate Ruth Bates Harris, xiii

  loyalty forms of Truman, 102

  merit system reforms, 32–33

  Negro applicants, 6–7

  oath of office, 1, 37, 274

  photos on applications, 6–7, 33, 94

  post office job bulletins, 15

  Claytor, William Waldron Schieffelin, 24, 73–74

  Cohen, Doris

  author at NACA, xvii, 85, 290

  R. T. Jones partner, 85, 88, 290

  Cold War

  “Communist” epithet, 66, 101, 102, 103, 170

  Cuba, 207, 222

  education and, 142, 158

  Korean War, 99, 104

  Negro treatment and, 103–104, 105

  Rosenberg spies, 101

  Soviet atomic capability, 98, 152, 301. See also Soviet Union

  Sputnik. See Sputniks

  US guided missiles, 162

  Coleman, Joshua and Joylette, 23, 70–71, 76, 77, 134–135, 245

  Coleman, Katherine. See Johnson, Katherine Coleman Goble

  Collier Trophy, 99, 110, 111

  Colored Computers cafeteria sign, 43–45, 48

  cafeteria segregation, 130, 146–147, 169–170

  Colored Girls bathroom sign, 8, 43, 44

  bathrooms segregated, xv, 48

  East Side assignment, 108–109

  opting out, 129, 146–147, 179

  Soviet influence, 169–170

  “colored” use in book, ix

  Coltrane, Lucille (scientist), 179–180

  Colvin, Claudette, 168

  “come-heres” as newcomers, 7

  compensation. See salaries

  “compressed-air” research, 56, 58

  computers (electronic)

  Analysis and Computation Division, 204–206, 218–219, 241

  Apollo 13 crisis, 248–249

  astronaut resistance, 215–217

  Bell electronic calculator, 137–138

  computational fluid dynamics, 254, 262

  “fly-by-wire” Mercury missions, 216

  human computers versus, xvii, 138–139, 211, 216–217, 219–223, 225

  IBM. See IBM computers

  Katherine Johnson versus, xvii, 211, 216–217, 219–223, 225

  men in computing, 205

  Project Mercury, 205–206, 207

  computers (human)

  astronauts and, 188–189, 216–217

  Colored Computers and Hampton, 47–48

  Colored Computers cafeteria sign, 43–45, 48, 130

  computers are electronic, 205

  defending her numbers, 114–115

  Dryden High-Speed Flight Research Center, 84–86

  East Computing disbanded, 86, 87, 88, 165, 166, 167, 205

  East Computing section, 39, 40, 84, 107–108, 172

  electronic computers versus, xvii, 138–139, 211, 216–217, 219–223, 225

  expertise over generalists, 165–166

  first female computing pool, xvi, 4–5

  Flight Research Division assignments, 57, 58–59

  Head Girls, 91–92

  Human Computer Project, 267, 268

  incorporated into divisions, 165

  Jewish with Negro friend, 102

  Katherine Johnson celebrity, 225, 232, 249–250

  Katherine Johnson vs. electronic, xvii, 211, 216–217, 219–223, 225

  “math aides” of NASA, 190, 210

  mathematicians versus, 143, 229–230. See also mathematicians

  men as, 205

  Mustangs and Tuskegee airmen, 52

  supervisor duties, 89

  Virginia Tucker as head computer, 5, 40, 86

  West Area segregation, 7, 37, 43–45, 48, 104–105

  West Computing boom, 105, 107

  West Computing dissolved, 171–173, 204, 218–219

  West Computing downsize, 165–167

  West Computing section, 39–40, 48–49, 81, 87, 88, 102, 250, 264

  “woe unto thee,” 58–59

  women as, xvi–xvii, 4–5, 59, 81–82, 83–84, 115, 166, 180

  working outside Langley, 289

  Cooke, Arminta (West Computer), 171, 204

  Cooper, Gordon, 228

  Copeland Park (Newport News, VA), 29, 62, 64, 67

  Cox, Elbert Frank, 13

  Cronkite, Walter, 111, 239–240

  Crosby, Bing, 71

  Cuba, 207, 222

  Curtiss Wright computer pool, 82, 289

  Czarnecki, Kazimierz “Kaz,” 109–110, 142–143, 197, 254–255

  Darden, Christine (data analyst)

  as data analyst, 231–232, 260–261

  doctorate in mechanical engineering, 262–263

  Hampton Institute, 202–203, 225

  Katherine Johnson on, 250

  sonic boom research, 261–262

  Darling, Frank, 38

  Darling processing plant, 38, 93

  Darling Stadium, 225

  “data analysts” for mathematicians, 259

  Davis, Benjamin O., 51

  Davis, John W., 72, 74–75

  defense industry desegregation, 6, 15–16, 32

  Delta Sigma Theta sorority, 40, 105

  Dembling, Paul, 170

  Derring, Eldridge, 90, 91

  desegregation

  Brown v. Board of Education, 135, 140–141, 153–154, 157, 304

  defense industry, 6, 15–16, 32

  Dorothy Vaughan textbook, xvii

  “Four Freedoms,” 31

  Girl Scouts, 198, 256

  graduate school programs, 24–25, 75

  Holiday Inn bar, 146

  Langley Air Force Base, 168

  Little Rock, 150

  military, 104

  Senator Byrd versus, 141, 168–169, 170, 184–185

  universities, 24, 25, 75, 152, 157

  Virginia schools, 203, 304, 306

  See also segregation

  Double V, 35–36

  Dryden High-Speed Flight Research Center (CA), 84, 163

  Du Bois, W. E. B.

  on black treatment, 103

  death, 228–229

  first Harvard doctorate to black, 13

  The Souls of Black Folk, 33, 109

  on teaching opportunities, 73–74

  Dwight, Ed, 241

  Dylan, Bob, 228

  Earhart, Amelia, 53

  Easley, Annie (scientist), 217–218

  Eisenhower, Dwight D.

  Introduction to Outer Space, 175, 305

  military-industrial complex, 207

  National Defense Education Act, 158

  peaceful space launch, 162

  secret bunker, 151

  “small ball in the air,” 152

  electronic computers. See computers (electronic)

  Engineering, Science, and War Management Training (ESMWT) programs, 46, 142, 283

  engineers

  black engineers, xiv, 113–114, 145–147, 230

  “compressed-air” research, 56, 58

  expertise over generalists, 165–166

  Federal Women’s Program Manager, 256–257

  “fresh-air” research, 57, 58, 122, 127, 298

  Mary Winston Jackson, 143–145. See also Jackson, Mary Winston

  men uniquely gifted, 257

  National Technical Association, 197

  “no-air” research, 58, 83, 112

  resource on Langley aeronautical, 298

  women as, 16, 144, 158, 197–198, 255, 257, 302

  women scientists, xvi, 179–180, 257, 305

  Enos the chimpanzee, 222

  Epps, Eric, 63, 118, 120, 252

  Etheridge, Mark, 33

  Evans, James C., 73

  F for fighter planes, 57

  Faget, Maxime, 180, 188

  Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), 6, 33

  significance to blacks, 15–16, 32, 66
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  Fair Employment Practices Within the Federal Establishment (1948), 104

  Faubus, Orval, 150

  FEPC. See Fair Employment Practices Committee

  Ferguson, Robert, 252

  Fetterman, David, 262

  Fitchett, Blanche Sponsler, 91. See also Sponsler, Blanche

  Flight Research Division

  Aerospace Mechanics Division from, 182

  computer assignments, 57, 58–59, 107, 122

  “fresh-air” engineers, 57, 58, 122, 127, 298

  high-speed to spaceflight, 163–164

  Space Task Group, 183–184. See also Space Task Group

  Forbes, Malcolm, 71

  FORTRAN language, 206, 254, 261, 262

  Foxx, Charles, xiii

  Freedom 7, 208–209

  “fresh-air” research, 57, 58, 122, 127, 298

  Friendship 7, 223–224

  Fries, Sylvia, 257

  Gable, Clark, 53

  Gagarin, Yuri, 208, 209

  Gas Dynamics Laboratory, 100–101

  Gaye, Marvin, 251

  Gehrig, Lou, 71

  George, Albert, 262

  Gilruth, Robert, 184, 189, 316

  “girls” use in book, ix. See also women

  Glenn, John, 188, 214–217, 223–225, 250

  Glenn, Madelon, 16

  Goble, James Francis “Jimmy”

  as chemistry teacher, 25, 69, 119

  death, 133, 135–136

  homeowner, 131, 132

  marriage to Katherine, 74, 76

  move to Hampton, 117–118, 120

  Goble, Katherine. See Johnson, Katherine Coleman Goble

  Goddard Space Flight Center (MD)

  capsule position, 221–222

  CO3E software program, 207

  IBM 7090 pair, 206, 207, 215, 218

  women scientists, 218, 255

  Golemba, Beverly, xvii, 263

  Gough, Melvin, 127, 316

  Graham, Julia, 113

  Greenbrier resort (“Old White”; WV)

  bellman Howard Vaughan, 14, 23, 71, 77

  bellman Joshua Coleman, 23, 71, 77, 135

  bunker below, 151–152

  celebrity guests, 71, 72

  serving-class divisions, 72

  Greensboro Four, 201

  Grissom, Virgil “Gus,” 211, 233

  Gup, Ted, 152

  Hairston, Ernie, 227

  Haise, Fred, 248

  Ham the chimpanzee, 208

  Hamer, Harold “Al,” 122, 176, 177, 234, 246, 248, 249

  Hammond, Ann Vaughan, 263

  Hampton (VA)

  African feet ashore, 228, 311

  Bay Shore Beach, 78, 93, 118

  black neighborhood resource, 299

  city official seal, 225

  civil rights movement, 202–203

  electricity rationing and wind tunnels, 56

  Hampton High School Langley classes, 141–142, 144–145

  John Glenn hero’s welcome, 224–225

  Langley Lab and, 38, 53

  prewar hamlet, 93–94

  racial tensions, 31, 47–48, 142, 167–168

  sounds of Langley, 3, 56

  “Spacetown, USA,” xviii, 225, 273

  Hampton Institute (VA)

  black president, 97, 203

  civil rights sit-in, 202

  electronic computer training, 141

  Engineering, Science, and War Management Training programs, 46, 142, 283

  Engineering for Women, 16, 39, 95

  “Hampton Idea,” 95

  John Glenn hero’s welcome, 225

  Marian Anderson performances, 68

  Mary Peake “founding,” 16

  Phenix High School, 94, 95, 142, 186

  Rosa Parks as hostess, 202

  Stability Analysis gatherings, 88

  war effort participation, 45–46

  Hampton Roads (VA)

  anti-Semitism, 102

  East End segregation, 29–30, 61–62

  John Glenn hero’s welcome, 224–225

  racial tensions, 31, 47–48

  V-J Day, 64–65

  war towns, 27–29, 64, 79–80

  Hannah, Margery (East & West Computing)

  authoring study with Katzoff, xvii, 88

  Katherine Johnson on, 250

  outer planet tour, 246, 314

  West Area women as equals, 47

  West Computing section head, xvii, 40, 49, 58, 81, 87, 250

  wind tunnel air flows, 110

  Harris, Ruth Bates, xiii

  Head Girls, 91–92

  Height, Dorothy, 228, 312

  Hill, Oliver, 140

  Hillside Inn (PA), 237–238, 313

  Hinson, Shirley Hunt (math aide), 210

  Holt, Harry, 38

  Hoover, Dorothy (mathematician; scientist)

  aeronautical research scientist, 112, 218

  GS-13 achieved, 255

  West Computer supervisor, 81

  working for Robert T. Jones, xvii, 87–88, 112

  House, Rufus, 90, 92

  Housing Rights Act (1968), 241

  Houston, Alice Jackson, 24

  Houston, Charles Hamilton

  Du Bois as guide, 229

  graduate school admission policies, 24

  military service, 32

  teacher salaries, 70, 74–75

  Howard University

  female engineering graduates, 144

  inaugural master’s in math, 13, 23, 24, 73, 74

  Hughes, Howard, 53

  Hughes, Langston, 251

  Human Computer Project, 267, 268

  Hunter, Lessie (West Computer), 40, 264

  Huntington, Collis, 38

  Huss, Carl, 122, 164, 176, 177, 189, 190, 210

  IBM computers

  604 and 650 for trajectories, 138

  704 FORTRAN, 205–206

  709 in Bermuda, 206

  7090s at Goddard, 206, 215, 218, 221–222

  CO3E software program, 207

  Katherine Johnson versus, 220, 223

  “Indian” use in book, ix, 45

  integration. See desegregation

  International Geophysical Year (1957–1958), 162, 175

  international view of discrimination, 103–104, 150, 170

  Introduction to Celestial Mechanics (Moulton; 1914), 176, 191

  Introduction to Outer Space (President’s Advisory Committee on Science; 1958), 175, 305

  J. S. Darling and Son, 38, 93

  Jackson, Levi, Sr., 260

  Jackson, Mahalia, 228, 229

  Jackson, Mary Winston (West Computer; engineer)

  Apollo capsule testing, 219

  Apollo Team Achievement Award, 219

  background, 94–98, 112–113, 186

  Becker reusable launch vehicle, 163–164

  black engineer recruitment, 230, 254

  defending her numbers, xvii, 114–115

  East Computing assignment, 108–110

  electronic computer programming, 254

  engineer barrier breaking, 196–199, 200, 219, 255–257

  engineering training, 143–145

  epilogue, 251, 253–257

  Federal Women’s Program Manager, 256–257

  Girl Scout leader, 95, 97–98, 108, 109, 198, 256

  Gloria Champine and, 257, 258–261

  Hampton return, 93–94

  Kazimierz Czarnecki hiring, 109–110, 142–143, 254–255

  security clearance, 98

  son’s soap box derby, 193–195, 199–200

  Volunteer of the Year, 254

  West Computing, 99, 101, 105, 107–108

  Jackson, Wanda, 260

  Jacobs, Eastman, 53, 82, 88, 101

  Johns, Altona Trent, 20, 33–34

  Johns, Barbara, 140–141

  Johns, Vernon, 33–34, 140

  Johnson, James A., 186–187, 188, 192

  Johnson, Janice, 198

  Johnson, Katherine Coleman Goble (West Computer; scientis
t)

  Alpha Kappa Alpha conclave, 236–239

  “America Is for Everybody” brochure, 227, 228

  Apollo 13 crisis, 248–249

  awards, 172, 249–250, 314

  Azimuth Angle report, 191–192, 211, 220

  background, 23–24, 70–72

  celebrity, 225, 232, 249–250

  Christine Darden welcomed, 231–232

  colored bathrooms, 129

  on Dorothy Vaughan, 173, 250

  epilogue, 249–251

  Eunice Smith friendship, 120, 186, 232

  Flight Research Division, 122–124, 125–131

  graduate studies and desegregation, 25, 75–76

  homeowner, 132–133, 185–186

  Jimmy Goble’s death, 133–134, 135–136, 186

  John Glenn’s trajectory, xvii, 211, 216–217, 219–223, 225

  on Margery Hannah, 250

  marriage to Jim Johnson, 186, 192

  marriage to Jimmy Goble, 74, 76

  Mars shot, 246

  mentor Claytor, 24, 73, 74

  Moon shot, 234, 239, 244–246, 248, 249

  NASA to Houston, 210

  Piper vs. jet wake, 128

  Presidential Medal of Freedom, 172, 250

  spaceflight, 164–165, 176, 177–179

  spaceflight editorial meetings, 179, 181–182

  spaceflight trajectories, 190–191

  Sputnik, 161, 162, 164

  as teacher, 23–24, 69–70, 74, 119, 120

  as Trekkie, 243–244

  West Computer, 120–122, 172

  Johnson, Kemble, 104–105

  Johnson, Leonard “Kansas City,” 12, 276

  Johnson, Lyndon, 162, 210, 227, 252

  Johnson, Susie Peeler, 12

  Jones, Robert “R. T.”

  anti-prejudice jail time, 47, 82

  Doris Cohen partner, 85, 88, 290

  Dorothy Hoover employment, xvii, 87–88, 112

  Langley to Ames lab, 112

  as researcher, 53, 82–83, 84

  Joyner, Kitty O’Brien (engineer), 144

  Kantrowitz, Arthur, 47, 54, 88

  Katzoff, Sam, xvii, 88, 110

  Keating, Jean Clark (scientist), 179–180

  Kennedy, John F., 207–208, 209, 227

  Kennedy, Joseph and Rose, 71

  Kennedy, Robert, 204

  Kent, Elijah, xiii

  King, Martin Luther, Jr.

  bus boycott, 168, 202

  March on Washington, 6, 228, 229

  Poor People’s Campaign, 240

  Trekkie, 243

  Knox, Frank, 41–42

  Korean War, 99, 104

  Kraft, Chris, 164, 208

  laminar flow airfoils, 55, 111

  Land, Bonnie Kathaleen (mathematician), xi, xii, xv, 269

  Landrum, Emma Jean (engineer), 197–198

  Langley, Samuel, 55

  Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory

  accomplishments, 111

  aircraft manufacturers and, 3–4, 111

  airfield relationship, 2–3, 37–38

  anti-Semitism, 102

  black women computer numbers, xviii

  bombing of Japan, 59

  description of, xii, 37, 38–39, 99

 

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