Margot Shetterly - Hidden Figures

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

engineering training by, 54–55, 141

high-speed to spaceflight, 163–164

integration progress, 167–168, 169–170

land for, 38, 225

Langley Research Center from, 171, 183

NACA and, 2, 209–210. See also National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

research review process, 178, 305

Rosenberg trial repercussions, 101–102, 110

secrecy at, 52–53

secretary of navy visit, 41–42

staffing explosion, 1–2, 99

townsfolk reactions to, 38, 53

V-J Day, 64–65, 80

West Area, 7. See also West Area of Langley

See also wind tunnels

Langley Research Center

aeronautics again, 253

black engineer recruitment, 230

Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory into, 171, 183

NASA open house on first anniversary, 184

Space Task Group, 183–184, 209. See also Space Task Group

tracking stations, 206–207

language used in book, ix

laundry workers, 9–10, 11, 17

Lee, Dorothy (computer; scientist), 180, 188

Lee, Robert Benjamin, III, xi, xii, xiii–xiv, 260

Lewis, John, 228

Lindbergh, Charles, 53

Little Rock (AR), 150

Loeb, Charles H., 152

“Lost Generation,” 204

Lovell, Jim, 248–249

Lovely, Hester (West Computer), 171, 204

Loy, Myrna, 53

Luce, Henry, 71, 299

Lucy, Autherine, 152

Lucy, Frederick and Annie, 29, 44

MacLean, Malcolm, 45–47, 203, 283

Malvestuto, Frank, 112

Maneuver Loads Branch, 126, 127

Mann, Christine

background, 153–157

Hampton Institute, 157–159

Sputnik launches, 149–151, 153, 158

Mann, Isabelle (West Computer), 171, 204

Mann, Miriam (West Computer)

Colored Computers cafeteria sign, 44–45, 48

daughter’s wedding penny, 167

engineering group position, 165

Hampton Institute, 16, 45

rendezvous research, 219

secretary of navy visit, 42

West Computing friendships, 49, 67–68, 78

West Computing section, 39, 219

Mann, Noah and Desma, 154–155, 158

Manned Spacecraft Center (TX), 210

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963), 228–229

Marshall, Thurgood

Brown v. Board of Education, 140–141

teacher salaries, 70, 74–75

math aides of NASA, 190, 210. See also computers (human)

mathematicians

black mathematicians, 227, 230

computers versus, 143, 229–230. See also computers (human)

as “data analysts,” 259

engineering training of, 54–55, 143–144

engineers versus, 143–144

expertise over generalists, 165–166

first black doctorates, 13, 24

first Langley black females, 8, 36, 166

racial integration of women, 205

salary for Dorothy Vaughan, 21, 79

status of, 5, 143

women as, 74, 115, 143, 166

Mayer, John, 122, 164, 176, 177, 189, 190, 210

Mayo, Alton, 176, 177

McCarthy, Joseph, 102

McConnell, Dudley, 217

McGraw, Minnie (West Computer), 16, 39

men in computing, 205

Mercury Seven astronauts, 188. See also Project Mercury

military service

blacks fighting for freedom, 34–36

segregation, 31, 32, 104

Mimosa Crescent (Hampton, VA), 62, 132, 155, 185

missiles

Atlas, 189, 208, 213–214, 217–218, 221, 223

Pilotless Aircraft Research Division, 127

Project Mercury, 189, 208, 209, 213–214

Redstone, 189, 208–209

Soviet threat, 152, 301

spaceflight applications, 163–164

US capabilities, 162

Mission Control

Atlas rocket communication, 221

capsule communication, 206–207, 221

electronic computer alarms, 207

film crews, 217

heat shield of John Glenn, 224

no blacks, 241

“Mississippiitis,” 152

Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938), 24, 75

Moon shot

cost of space program, 240–241, 251–252

Kennedy challenge, 209

NASA Group Achievement Awards, 249

Project Gemini, 242

rendezvous, 218, 219, 248

Saturn rocket, 218, 239

television coverage, 235–237

“three nines” risk standard, 233–234

two vehicle time line, 233

See also Project Apollo; Project Mercury

Morgan, Irene, 44–45, 168

Morgan v. Virginia (1946), 44–45

Moron, Alonzo G., 97, 203

Moton High School (VA). See Prince Edward County (VA)

Moulton, Forest Ray, 176, 191

Mueller, Emily Stephens (scientist), 179–180

Mulcahy, Helen (East Computer), 198

Munk, Max, 53

Muroc. See Dryden High-Speed Flight Research Center (CA)

Murray, Albert, 238

Murray v. Pearson (1936), 24

Mustangs. See P-51 Mustangs

NAACP

Brown v. Board of Education, 140–141

bus segregation, 44–45

Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall, 70, 74–75, 140–141

Farmville founder Dorothy Vaughan, 19

graduate school desegregation, 24, 74–75

Joseph McCarthy target, 102

teacher salaries, 70, 75

top lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston, 24, 32, 70, 74–75

Virginia school integration, 169

NACA. See National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

NASA. See National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)

accomplishments, 111

aircraft design, 3–4, 55–58

Area Rule, 110–111

charter of, 111, 275

employee badge, 37

engineering training by, 54–55

executive committee members, 53

fair employment officer, 104–105

integration progress, 167–168, 169–170

Korean War, 99

laminar flow airfoils, 55, 111

Langley Lab and, 2, 37, 209–210. See also Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory

NASA name, 170–171, 183, 304

research report writers, xvii, 40, 85–86, 88, 290

research review process, 178, 305

Rosenberg trial repercussions, 101–102, 110

as space operations center, 170

supersonic flight, 84–85, 99–100. See also supersonic flight

See also wind tunnels

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

black employees, xiv, 217–219, 227–228, 241–242

charter of, 171

cost of space program, 240–241, 251–252

deputy assistant administrator Ruth Bates Harris, xiii

Federal Women’s Program Manager, 256–257

Langley Research Center as epicenter, 183