Margot Shetterly - Hidden Figures

“math aides” for human computers, 190, 210

NACA into, 170–171, 183, 304

NASA Group Achievement Awards, 249

open house on first anniversary, 184

quickest route into space, 164, 187

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

Technical Assistant to Division Chief of Space Systems, 258

transparency of, 170–171, 217, 222

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

women engineer increase, 255

workforce reduction, 253

National Defense Education Act (1958), 158

National Technical Association, 197

“Negro” use in book, ix. See also black Americans

Newport News (VA)

East End segregation, 29–30, 61–63

John Glenn hero’s welcome, 225

racial tensions, 31

shipyard, 38, 120

V-J Day, 64–65

as war town, 27–29, 79–80

Newsome Park (Newport News, VA), 29, 61–63, 64, 66–67, 131–132, 241, 252

newspapers. See black newspapers

Nichols, Nichelle, 242–243

“no-air” research, 58, 83, 112

Northrop Corp. engineer Virginia Tucker, 86–87

Obama, Barack, 250

“Old White,” 71. See also Greenbrier resort

orbit requirements, 163. See also satellites

Osgood, Catherine T. (math aide), 210

P for pursuit planes, 57

P-51 Mustangs, 51–52, 55, 57

Paine, Tom, 240

PARD. See Pilotless Aircraft Research Division

Parks, Rosa, 168, 202

pay scales. See salaries

Peake, Mary, 16

Pearson, Henry, 122, 125–126, 176–177, 191–192

Peddrew, Kathryn “Chubby” (West Computer), 49, 78, 132, 165, 167

Peddrew, Marjorie (West Computer), 78, 171, 204

Perl, William, 101–102

Perry, John, 227

Phenix High School (Hampton, VA), 94, 95, 142, 186

Phillips, John Mallory, 78

Phillips, W. H., 164

Pickford, Mary, 71

Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD)

rocketry, 127, 164

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

women scientists, 179–180

plane name designations, 57

Presidential Medal of Freedom, 172, 250

Prince Edward County (VA)

Altona Johns as teacher, 20, 33–34

Dorothy Vaughan as teacher, 10, 15, 19–20, 21, 92

Moton High School conditions, 19, 92, 140–141

schools closed, 203–204, 304, 309

Prohibition and Hampton (VA), 38

Project Apollo

Achievement Awards, 219, 249

Apollo 11 mission, 239–240, 244

Apollo 13 crisis, 248–249

cost, 240

end of, 252

fire and death, 233

lunar rendezvous, 248

Moon landing TV coverage, 235–237

Project Gemini, 242

“Project Greek Island,” 151–152

Project Mercury

astronaut selection, 188–189

ballistic to orbital, 190

capsule, 188, 201, 208, 213, 214, 221

concluding flight, 228

“dummy” four-orbit flight, 219, 222

electronic computers used, 205–206, 207

first American into space, 208–209

first orbital flight, 209, 213–217, 223–224

“fly-by-wire” controls, 216

goals of, 184

IBM 7090s vs. Katherine Johnson, xvii, 211, 216–217, 219–223

Kennedy moon challenge, 209

launch date slips, 207–208, 215

rockets, 189, 208, 209, 213–214

suborbital flight, 211

tracking stations, 206–207, 216, 217, 221, 258

trajectories, 189–191, 214, 215–217

Rainey, Gerald, 146

Rainey, Ruby (East Computer), 231

RAND Corporation satellite report, 161

Randolph, A. Philip

Communism denouncement, 103

Du Bois as guide, 229

Martin Luther King Jr. and, 6, 168, 228, 229

Negro war employment, 5–6

new generation, 168

Rauh, Joseph, 6

Redstone rocket, 189, 208–209

reentry

blunt body, 163, 188

heat shield of John Glenn, 223–224

retrofire output from Goddard, 222

self-education lecture series, 177

Sue Wilder research, 219

Reid, Henry

black women mathematicians, 46–47, 283

on bombing of Japan, 59

cafeteria glimpses of, 43

character of, 4, 46

correspondence with Orville Wright, 46, 283

Kathryn Peddrew for United Fund Drive, 167

spy warnings by, 52

research. See engineers

Reynolds number for wind tunnels, 56

Ribner, Herbert, 112

Richie, Christine (West Computer), 105, 171

RIFs and RIGs (reductions in force and grade), 253

Robeson, Paul, 103

Robinson, Jackie, 140

Robinson, Spottswood, 140

rockets

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

Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD), 127, 164

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

Redstone, 189, 208–209

reusable, 163–164

Saturn, 218, 239, 240

Scout solid-fuel, 219

Roddenberry, Gene, 243

Rogallo, Francis, 42

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 6, 9–10

Roosevelt, Franklin

airplane production boost, 3, 41

desegregation of defense industry, 6, 15–16, 32

“Four Freedoms,” 31

photos on civil service applications, 6–7

Rosenberg, Ethel and Julius, 101

Rosenberg trial repercussions, 101–102, 110

Rosenberg, Sam, 88

Roy, Melba (mathematician), 218, 255

Russia. See Soviet Union

Rustin, Bayard, 228

salaries

computers, 5

laundry workers, 10

mathematicians, 21, 79, 121

teachers, 10–11, 17, 63, 70, 118, 121

Satchell, Lorraine (West Computer), 171, 204

satellites

Explorer I, 158, 162

International Geophysical Year, 162, 175

launch requirements, 163

Pilotless Aircraft Research Division, 127, 164

Rand report, 161

reusable launch vehicle, 163–164

Sputniks. See Sputniks

Vanguard I, 158, 162

Saturn rocket, 218, 239, 240

Schirra, Wally, 188

Schy, Al, 131

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

Scott-Heron, Gil, 240

Scout solid-fuel rocket, 219

Seabass, Richard, 262

secrecy

at Langley, 52–53

Mary Winston Jackson clearance, 98

Rosenberg trial repercussions, 101–102

secretary of navy to Langley, 41–42

segregation

Anne Wythe Hall, 44

bathrooms at Langley, xv, 8, 43, 44, 48, 108, 129, 146–147, 169–170, 179

Bay Shore vs. Buckroe Beaches, 78, 93, 118

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

Brown vs. Virginia, 168–169, 184–186, 203–204, 304, 309

buses, 22, 30, 31, 36, 44–45, 69–70, 168, 202

cafeteria at Langley, 43–45, 48, 130, 146–147, 169

deeply rooted, 33, 103–104, 169, 185

East Area of Langley, 108

East End, 29–30, 61–62

federal defense industry, 6, 15–16, 32

federal employment, 33

foreigners to US, 103–104

fuzzy boundaries at Langley, 123–124, 169

Girl Scouts, 198, 256

graduate school programs, 24–25, 75

Hampton schools, xi, 142, 144–145

Holiday Inn bar, 146

hotels in south, 117

Housing Rights Act, 241

Jewish computer with Negro friend, 102

Langley Activities Building versus, 167–168

Little Rock, 150

men-only smokers, 83

military service, 31, 32, 104

“Mississippiitis,” 152

photos on civil service applications, 6–7, 33, 94

Poconos resorts, 238

University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 157

USO clubs, 34

Virginia schools vs. Brown, 168–169, 184–186, 203–204, 304, 309

Virginia vs. West Virginia, 69–70

West Area of Langley, 7, 37, 43–45, 48, 104–105

West Computer as Colored Computer, 167

women on golf course, 255

Woolworth’s lunch counter, 201