The film “Hidden Figures” is a film that displays the discrimination that occurred in the 1950’s-1960’s, and what 3 African-American women went through while working at NASA. This film shows the hard work and determination they put in to make things happen. The film is based on true events concerning three women named Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary jackson. It took place during segregation, so most of the people working at NASA were White, and often made it clear that they were uncomfortable working with or around the Black women. They all did very high quality work and were considered “Human Computers”.
The job was considered a great job to get, especially if you were Black and a woman during these time periods. Although the girls may not have enjoyed every second being there, they kept the job because their race often stopped them from being able to get as good of a job as a White person. Even though this was a segregated workplace, there was a first Black group of women referred to as the “West Computers”. They were called that because they worked on the west side of NASA, which separated them from the rest of the employees. To make matters worse, the workspace was not only segregated by race, but also by gender. Katherine Johnson was the first Black lady on the Space Task group because of her skills in analytic geometry. She faced a lot of problems.
Some even doubted her work, saying that a White person could do her job better. She later proved them all wrong, and they were shocked that a Black woman could do it. Mary was assigned to the Heat Shield Team because of her skills and her good credentials due to going to an all white high school. Despite all that, some even tried to replace the girls by installing an electronic computer whose role was, “permanent supervisor for the colored group”. In the end, Mary completed her education to become an engineer, and Katherine continued calculating the routes for the 1969 Apollo 11 lunar voyage and the Apollo 13 mission.
The story was very inspiring and gave true facts that people would research. In a world where discrimination happens too often, “Hidden Figures”, highlights a group of women who kept striving to get what they deserved and struggled for.
Hidden Figures Summary Hidden Figures | Raising Children Network. Hidden Figures-Wikipedia
Hidden Figures is a groundbreaking book. But the film? Not so much.