Hidden Figures: Young Readers Edition

As Black women in the days of segregation, all the key figures in the biography faced obstacles in their professional, personal, and social lives. They overcame these challenges by believing in a better future and continuing to work hard no matter what. Their story hence conveys to young readers that they can overcome difficulties through perseverance.

Before they began working at NACA, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden overcame adversity to pursue an education and become teachers, considered a “very good black [job]” (24). As Black women, this was the best career they could hope for at the time. However, Shetterly writes that “teaching offered status [but] didn’t pay well” (20). Dorothy had to work in underfunded schools that closed halfway through the year and later looked for more work to supplement her teaching job. Getting a job at NACA was a big improvement for the Black computers, but it didn’t mean that their challenges stopped. The women had to continue to fight against discrimination and keep working hard to “prove themselves equal to or better than the white mathematicians” (46). However, they never gave up. Katherine, for example, was “persistent” and finally allowed into the Space Task Group’s editorial meetings.