Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition

By Margot Lee Shetterly

The uplifting, amazing true story—a New York Times bestseller!

This edition of Margot Lee Shetterly’s acclaimed book is perfect for young readers. It's the powerful story of four African-American female mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of the greatest moments in our space program. 

Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.

This book brings to life the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, who lived through the Civil Rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the movement for gender equality, and whose work forever changed the face of NASA and the country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Nov 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9780062662392

Margot Lee Shetterly

Margot Lee Shetterly grew up in Hampton, Virginia, where she knew many of the women in her book Hidden Figures. She is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow and the recipient of a Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grant for her research on women in computing. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Growing up in Hampton, Virginia, I assumed the face of science was brown like mine. My dad worked at the Langley Research Center at NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He started there as an engineering intern in 1964 and retired as an internationally respected climate scientist in 2004. Our next-door neighbor taught physics. Our church pews were crowded with mathematicians. I knew so many African Americans working in science, math, and engineering that I thought that’s just what black folks did.

My father, who as a high school student had wanted to study electrical engineering, lived a different story. Become a physical education teacher, my grandfather told him. He thought my dad would have trouble finding work as an engineer. In the 1960s, most college-educated African Americans took teaching jobs or worked for the post office. As late as 1970, just 1 percent of all American engineers were black, and my father was one of them.

Because of my father’s job, I was part of the NASA family. I grew up saving my allowance to buy tickets to ride ponies at the annual NASA carnival and sharing my Christmas wish list with the Santa at the NASA holiday party. On Thursday nights, I sat with my family and cheered for the Stars, my dad’s NBA team (that’s the NASA Basketball Association).

My Sunday school teacher worked at NASA as a computer, doing the complex math for the aerospace engineers. She wasn’t alone: from the 1940s through the 1970s, hundreds of women, many of whom were black, worked as mathematicians at NASA. It wasn’t until I was older that I appreciated just how extraordinary this occupation was for black women in the South during the days of segregation. The first five women were hired at Langley as computers in 1935, and they were white. Ten years later, there were more than four hundred women working as mathematicians, and many of them were black.

The contributions made by these African-American women have never been heralded, but they deserve to be remembered—and not as a side note in someone else’s account, but as the center of their own story. These women should be celebrated not just because they are black or because they are women, but because they are an important part of American history.

This is their story.

SETTING THE SCENE

Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden loved math. As children, they showed special skill in arithmetic, and they went on to study mathematics in college. After graduation they worked as teachers before going to work as computers, or mathematicians, for the government’s air and space program.

Over the years, hundreds of women worked as mathematicians for the federal agency called the NACA—the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics—which researched and promoted the study of flight. But these women were among many who distinguished themselves with their talents and hard work.

Dorothy Vaughan was a pioneer. She joined the NACA in 1943, the first year the agency began hiring African-American women as computers, and she was the first to be promoted into a management position. She was a role model for other women, and she helped to steer the careers of many talented women who were joining the NACA.

Mary Jackson was the first African-American woman to move up the ranks and become an engineer at the NACA. She was a fighter, standing up for herself and for other women who deserved the chance to prove themselves. Her work helped to make supersonic aircraft fly higher and faster.

Katherine Johnson was an African-American woman who became an essential member of the team that put the first American in orbit around Earth. She was a dreamer and an independent thinker who was unafraid to imagine what others considered to be impossible. She helped do the math that was required to send the first men into space—and to bring them home safely.

Christine Darden was an African-American woman who became one of the world’s leading experts on supersonic flight. She became the face of the next generation of female space scientists. Her groundbreaking research on predicting sonic booms is still used today.

The accomplishments of these four women were remarkable. But their work was even more impressive because it was achieved while living and working in the South during a time when racial discrimination was commonplace, and when most women with an interest in math were expected to become math teachers.

A Different Time

In the 1800s, after the Civil War, the government passed laws that ended slavery and granted full citizenship and voting rights to African Americans. Later, however, many state and local governments passed other laws that legalized racial segregation. These regulations, which were most common in the South, kept black people and white people apart in many situations.

They could not eat in the same restaurants.

They could not drink from the same water fountains.

They could not use the same restrooms.

They could not attend the same schools.

They could not ride in the same parts of buses.

They could not live in the same neighborhoods.

They could not receive care in the same hospitals.

They could not visit the same beaches.

They could not compete on the same sports teams.

They could not sit in the same sections in movie theaters.

They could not marry someone of a different race.

They could not even be buried in the same cemeteries.

Technically, African Americans had the right to vote. However, many local laws made it impossible for them to do so. Some communities levied, or charged, poll taxes, or enforced literacy requirements or imposed other restrictions that made it difficult or impossible for black people to register and vote. And since people who were not registered to vote weren’t allowed to serve on juries or run for political office, many African Americans were deprived of these civil rights as well.

During the 1930s, the United States experienced the Great Depression, a decade-long period of economic struggle. Jobs became difficult to find and wages decreased dramatically. All Americans suffered, but African Americans faced the most serious challenges in finding work.

For many African Americans, World War II was an opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families. Black men enlisted in the military in large numbers. Even though they served in separate black infantry regiments, usually overseen by white officers, they believed that their loyalty and patriotism would help blacks to earn rights that white citizens had. Women also enlisted in the army, where they were called WACs (for Women’s Army Corps), and they served in all-female units in the navy, too. And for women like Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, World War II opened the door to a career as a professional mathematician. Each of them found their way to the Langley Laboratory, where they met one another, and women like them: smart, brave, confident, and good at math. The war was changing the world, and it would change their lives as well.

A DOOR OPENS

The newspaper ad caught the attention of many women. It read: Reduce your household duties! Women who are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and do jobs previously filled by men should call the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.

A few years earlier, an ad like this would have been unthinkable—most employers never would have considered a woman for a job that had always been performed by a man. But in the spring of 1943, with World War II in full swing and many men off serving in the military, the country needed all the help it could get. Employers were beginning to hire women to do jobs that had once belonged only to men.

This particular ad was placed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a government agency dedicated to studying the science of flying. The NACA shared a campus with the US Army Air Corps in Hampton, Virginia, a city in the southeastern part of the state, next to the Chesapeake Bay.

The NACA’s mission was important and unique: to help the United States develop the most powerful and efficient airplanes in the world. Airplanes moved military troops, tracked enemies, and launched bombs. World leaders felt that the country that ruled the skies would win the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed in the importance of air power, so two years earlier, in 1941, he had challenged the nation to increase its production of airplanes to fifty thousand units a year. At that time, the industry had manufactured only three thousand planes a year.

The NACA and private industry were up for the challenge. By 1943, the American aircraft industry was the largest, most productive, and most sophisticated in the world, making three times more planes than the Germans, who were fighting on the other side of the war.

Victory through Air Power!

Before manufacturers built the airplanes, the designs were developed, tested, and refined at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, which was where the NACA had first begun its operations, in 1917. The engineers created wind tunnels to simulate, or imitate, different conditions a plane could encounter when flying. This helped the engineers to test airplane parts as well as whole aircraft, examining them for any problems, like air disturbance and uneven wing geometry.

After that testing, pilots flew the planes, trying to assess how the machines handled in the air. Did the aircraft roll unexpectedly? Did it stall? Was it hard to guide or maneuver? Making small changes to the design added up to a difference in performance. Even tiny improvements in speed and efficiency multiplied over millions of pilot miles added to a difference that could tip the balance of the war.

People working at Langley knew that they were doing their part to win the war. Victory through air power! said Henry Reid, the engineer-in-charge of the Langley Laboratory. And the workers took their mission to heart.

WANTED: Female Mathematicians

Each of the engineers at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory required the support of a number of other workers: craftsmen to build the airplane models, mechanics to maintain the test tunnels, and number crunchers to process the data that was collected during the tests. For the engineers, a plane was basically a complex physics experiment. Physics is the science of matter, energy, and motion. Physics meant math, and math meant mathematicians. At the Langley Laboratory, mathematicians meant women.

Female mathematicians had been on the job at Langley since 1935. And it didn’t take long for the women to show that they were just as good or even better at computing than many of the male engineers. But few of the women were granted the title mathematician, which would have put them on equal footing with some male employees. Instead, they were classified as subprofessionals, a title that meant they could be paid less.

At Langley, the female mathematicians were called computers. They did the computations to turn the results of the raw data gathered by the engineers into a more useful form. Today we think of computers as machines, but in the 1940s, a computer was just someone whose job it was to do computations, a flesh-and-blood woman who was very good with numbers.

In 1943, it was difficult for the Langley Laboratory to find as many qualified women as they needed. A recruiter from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics visited colleges in search of young women with analytical or mathematical skills.

Reviews for Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition

[asomers_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read the young readers' edition to see how my students might react to the book. It is a worthy edition to the school library.

[christina · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An amazing book. Loved this! One of the best books!

[ondinanat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

? = good : ) and nice i need more words jf uh hdydhjdnd jd dm

[honejo8542 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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[lenell puchalla · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Extremely interesting! These captivating women changed the face of history in so many ways.

[tracy_919446806 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Tells an important story in simple, elegant, informative fashion. It was educational and enjoyable.

[Jaeden Palanog · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a good book, I liked it a lot.” ... If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to [e-mail] or [e-mail]

[zoes_human · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those fascinating bits of history that blows the doors off of our iconic cultural images of how things happened. My visions of the space age, shaped by the presentation given by the media, were of rows of white men sitting at banks of computers smoking nervously as they sent more white men off into the unknown. I never saw images of other types of people there, so I assumed that they weren't. Given our history as a country and the current state of affairs with sexism and segregation at the time, it seemed a reasonable assumption.This book was incredibly eye-opening not only in alerting me to the presence, influence, and contributions of women and blacks to the accomplishments of NASA, but also as to how much work went into it that I simply had never considered as a layperson. It never would have crossed my mind that you would need rooms of people doing math prior to the existence of modern computers. Nor quite how much math it takes to get something up into the air much less into space. I knew it was a lot, but I didn't realize it was a metric fuckton.A fascinating read. I look forward to watching the movie next.

[brokenteepee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It always amazes me when I come upon stories such as these – women basically lost to history. I had no idea about this cadre of women who worked for the nascent NASA. They were actually called computers; but in essence they were early engineers. They did this vital, valuable work and yet the credit fell on the men. How about that? The book singles out four women to profile – this is not historical fiction by the way – but it is the story of so many more women.Even though this is non-fiction the book reads like a novel. Ms. Shatterly introduces her heroines and the reader learns about these amazing women in the context of their time. Despite living in horribly restrictive times – as women and as women of color they break so many barriers. They still deal with being all of the other issues women are still dealing with today – motherhood, discrimination, men claiming their work. But this all happened at a time when blacks were still being relegated to separate bathrooms, water fountains, etc. In fact one of the issues was finding a building for them to work in so they wouldn’t “mix” with the white workers. It does make for some uncomfortable reading at times. As it should.I was utterly fascinated by the stories of the times, of the women, of the work they did and of how Ms. Shetterly wove it all together. I didn’t know about the movie when I chose to review the book but now I admit I’m looking forward to seeing it. It will add fictional elements of course but I’m sure it will be fascination. These women deserve to be celebrated and it is long overdue.

[bogopea · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beginning with WWII and the need for women to fill jobs during wartime, the government hired human "computers", black and white females, to calculate math equations to aid in the aeronautical and space industry. Langley Aeronautical Lab in Hampton, VA was the facility on the east coast. Most of the blacks hired went to segregated colleges, majored in math, anticipating a career in teaching which was a "typical" career for a black woman at that time. Another recent book, "Rocket Girls", explores a similar group of computers, though primarily white, on the west coast and is a fascinating read just for the perspective of the rise of women in the workplace and the injustices they faced. In "Hidden Figures" the road to equality is even more daunting, given that race was added to the equation. Margot Lee Shetterly, a black woman, grew up in (the "comapany" town) of Hampton, VA and her father worked at Langley. It was not til a visit home as an adult that she learned the story of these women. It's a fascinating book, well-researched and well-written. Though it focuses on four of the African-American women, the author adds historical perspective to the story that enhances the reading experience. Though I do plan to see the movie, I'm glad I read the book first and would recommend it.

[gllyons-120926 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting, but it sometimes read like the Author just wanted to make sure she told a few facts about everyone who was involved. Focusing in a few stories might have worked better.

[ladypembroke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Found History

This book reveals a rich history that was seemingly lost amongst other stories. In an age of war heroes and space heroes, very little attention was paid to the women in the background. I'm so glad we have this wonderful book to tell the stories of the hidden figures so that they are no longer hidden. Bravo!

[ssa T · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved it.... good story. thanks for this story. I have knowledge about aerospace history.

[rubygarnet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The movie didn't do this magnificent story justice.

[tlcooper_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly is a glimpse into a history that never made it into the history books taught in any of my history classes. I kept thinking about how the victors write history and how that history always makes those victors the heroes while ignoring all other contributions. Shetterly examines the role of the "human computers" and particularly the black women "human computers" who were instrumental in the advancement of the United States's development of planes and eventually the space program. Shetterly writes about these mathematicians, their work, and and their lives with finesse and insight. Hidden Figures is an intense and beautifully written story that shatters multiple stereotypes while demonstrating the obstacles overcome as well as the opportunities embraced. Maybe someday history will truly reflect the contributions of those who are hidden behind the scenes doing the work that changes lives. Until then we need books like Hidden Figures to bring those stories to life and remind us all that our efforts have the power to contribute to the future we wish to build and that we achieve more when we work together. Hidden Figures is an inspiring, realistic portrayal of a history that is complicated and diverse but needs to be celebrated.

[estherfilbrun · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars

Years ago, while staying with friends, we were discussing a movie to watch one night, and they suggested we watch Hidden Figures, since that was a new one for me. I enjoyed the story and determined that I’d pick up the book whenever I had a chance to do so. That took a while, but I found the audiobook recently, and took the time to listen to it. What a good story!

As someone who was born at the tail-end of the 20th century, my knowledge from the 1950s on was rather scanty. I learned a few broad brush strokes of history while in school, but there’s nothing like learning the stories of people who lived through those times to really help it sink in. This book is the perfect combination of history and biography. I loved learning about these three women’s lives, and through their experiences, the broader story of the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War, and the Space Race were given much more nuanced meanings.

I admit; there were parts of the book that I struggled with, to some extent. It is quite feministic, and there’s a certain amount of critical race theory mixed into the message. That took down the rating for me, which otherwise would easily have been a five-star read.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. Shetterly does an incredible job bringing us into these women’s lives. Though I may not agree with all their decisions, it’s easy to understand why they chose the paths they did. This book is an easy, gripping read—I had a hard time putting it down most of the time! That impressed me, especially because I often find nonfiction to be slower-going than fiction. If you enjoy history and are interested in learning more about some of the historical events I mentioned above, or just enjoy reading about space and the people who helped to get a man on the moon, I’d highly recommend you check this book out.

[castlelass · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Non-fiction about a group of black American women working for the US government’s defense program, during 1943 to 1969, as human “computers.” Prior to this book, and the subsequent movie, this group was not well known. At the time, women rarely worked in mathematics, science, and technology. Black women faced additional obstacles that came with living in the American South (near Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia) during segregation and the beginning of the civil rights movement. They played key roles in “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."

The biographical information centers on Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Christine Darden (who entered the scene later), though many other contributors are mentioned. I have seen the movie, and quite a bit of dramatic license is taken, but they do a nice job of translating non-fiction into a storyline. The book is more technical and not as tightly focused. It jumps around quite a bit, which proved more challenging to follow when listening to the audio book (which is beautifully read by Robin Miles). Margot Lee Shetterly does a nice job of shining a light on these brilliant and dedicated, but previously overlooked, women.

[math_foo · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The story is great - the book is not.

I was really, really inclined to like this. I am a computer programmer and a woman; but this was not well written. No central narrative stood out.

[kalliegrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love learning about women, and minority women especially, absolutely crushing it and just being invaluable in untold ways. These women are so impressive, not just for their race or gender but for the spectacular grasp on math that they had. They were brilliant clearly intimidating to their white male coworkers. I felt like their stories didn't have the teeth I expected, so it wasn't quite as gripping as I had hoped. Not that I want anyone to relive their racial trauma, but it was a surprisingly civil work environment for the time? I have to imagine they left a lot of the pain out of their stories to remain more palatable.

[amymacevilly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you have seen the movie first, do not expect a strong single narrative through this nonfiction work. For the movie, they had to focus on the intertwining of just 3 of the stories of the black women computers, mathematicians, and engineers in this work. This text does a good job of looking at the macro, meso, and microlevels: the women and their families; the segregated school systems and the HBCU system; social segregation; individual, collective, and systemic work to dismantle segregation; and how the STEM fields can both continue discrimination and counter it. For those working on DEI in STEM, this is a must read.

[siok-76276 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I saw the movie and decided to read the book. Though the movie dramatised the story, it brought it to life. In comparison, Margot Lee Shetterly's writing was rather dry. Nevertheless, without her, most of us wouldn't have known the role of both black and white women in NASA's development.

[FabianaLectora · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found it spectacular. I devoured it in 2 nights. Amazing!!! (Translated from Spanish)

[Laura G Krieger · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

They charge me money even when I cancelled my subscription, THIS IS AN HORRIBLE PAGE

[Melissa Decker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved it because of the people in the story. It talked about what the people did. I learned a lot about other things to!

[eraderneely · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have read a number of reviews annoyed about "history re-writes" like this one, and I find myself irrationally angry. Not once does this book even suggest that these women were the sole heroes of the space race or more important than the head engineers or astronauts whose names are well known.

What is does do is tell the stories of one of the many groups that made American space travel possible, but whose stories you have likely not heard before. I love reading about the work struggles and triumphs and also personal lives of the many people surrounding a major historical event, not just the "key players". It provides the context and vibrancy to the event, and lets us see what life was like in that time and place for everyone who wasn't a famous white male.

I'm not saying that John Glenn and Gene Kranz weren't vitally important to the space program. I just prefer to read broader histories of the program that include all the different jobs and people, rather than biographies of these select individuals. Hidden Figures gave me just that.

[bookscookslooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It always amazes me when I come upon stories such as these – women basically lost to history. I had no idea about this cadre of women who worked for the nascent NASA. They were actually called computers; but in essence they were early engineers. They did this vital, valuable work and yet the credit fell on the men. How about that? The book singles out four women to profile – this is not historical fiction by the way – but it is the story of so many more women.

Even though this is non-fiction the book reads like a novel. Ms. Shatterly introduces her heroines and the reader learns about these amazing women in the context of their time. Despite living in horribly restrictive times – as women and as women of color they break so many barriers. They still deal with being all of the other issues women are still dealing with today – motherhood, discrimination, men claiming their work. But this all happened at a time when blacks were still being relegated to separate bathrooms, water fountains, etc. In fact one of the issues was finding a building for them to work in so they wouldn’t “mix” with the white workers. It does make for some uncomfortable reading at times. As it should.

I was utterly fascinated by the stories of the times, of the women, of the work they did and of how Ms. Shetterly wove it all together. I didn’t know about the movie when I chose to review the book but now I admit I’m looking forward to seeing it. It will add fictional elements of course but I’m sure it will be fascination. These women deserve to be celebrated and it is long overdue.

[Grisalvarez94 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very inspiring and a fascinating story that reads very quickly ❤️ (Translated from Spanish)

[obtusata · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting, but a little dry at times. Though, it's well worth the read as it's very important to understand the trials of women and black people. It's also a very good historical overview of NACA/NASA.

I would highly recommend this for anyone interested in math, aeronautics, race relations, etc.

[brandyluther-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A very important story. Endlessly inspirational and magical. The author effortlessly weaves in a compelling civil rights narrative with surprisingly fascinating mathematical prowess. And, she does so in a way that evokes interest in a field that most consider rote and monotonous. My interest was peaked in the field, as well as my admiration for the story of ethnic minorities rising above a system designed to be pitted against them. Most importantly, the theme of rising above what seems, and very well might have been, impossible is a narrative everyone can cherish.

[robinsonstef · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely loved the movie and couldn't wait to read the book. It is full of facts and important information, but I sometimes found myself getting confused about the people I was reading about and found I absorbed more information when I read it during the day as opposed to before bed. It is a book that would be a wonderful resource to someone researching the time period or any of the topics covered in the book. A non-fiction read that will provide a clear picture of what NACA and NASA were like during the 1940s-1970s and I learned a lot about the black women (and women in general) who contributed so much to the space program.