Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures displayed integrity, persistence, and dedication to achieve things that may have been deemed impossible at that time. 1961, was a year where the workplace and schools were segregated, and colored individuals were oppressed to the point where they were not allowed to share the same bathrooms with Caucasian individuals.

The movie Hidden Figures is based on a true story about three confident, intelligent negro women who play a huge role in Nasa’s landing to the moon. Throughout the movie these three women are criticized often because of the colour of their skin. The lead role is played exceptionally by Taraji P. Henson who plays the role of Katherine Goble Johnson. Katherine was part of a group of ‘coloured computers’. This is the group for negro women mathematicians who help NASA explore space. Amongst the many women working in this group there is Katherine Johnson whose career made history…

While applying to an ad to work at NASA, this woman was the only one out of the 1,000 people that replied to the ad that had the opportunity to talk to Kraft, the “head” of NASA. It was a tremendous deal to talk to the boss guy . Right then and there she knew she made it into NASA to be an astronaut.( Sally Ride taking off ) It was the changing point of her career and other women’s careers that she helped influence. "I was so dazzled to be on the crew and go into space I remembered very little of what he said," Sally Ride from Time magazine. This quote entities that Ride was exceptionally enthusiastic to be able to join NASA as a woman. The former astronaut was determined to land where she expected, if not more. Ride defied the odds of being a woman and being intelligent at the same time.

Everyone has faced prejudice once in his or her life. Some have faced prejudice more than others. “Hidden Figures” tells the story of three colored women working at NASA who faced prejudice not only because of their color but their gender too. They proved everyone wrong by achieving incredible things, despite being limited. The movie shows comical and serious sides that make it entertaining to watch as well as educating about the past.

This paper is about the movie Hidden Figures. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson all faced racial injustice in their careers as NASA. They were looked down upon as African American women, thus depriving them of attending school necessary to become an engineer as well as attend meetings that presented data essential to calculating the mathematics required for Katherine to compute the landing point of the rocket. They received everything from glares to spiteful comments by opposite sexes and races. They were stuck in a world filled with segregation and unequal treatment.

Our group watched the movie, “Hidden Figures,” which was directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Alison Schroeder. We watched the movie on Friday, November 10, in our teacher’s classroom. We had dinner together, bonded and discussed the movie. “Hidden Figures”, in a nutshell, is about three African-American females who are mathematicians that worked for NASA during the space race. The movie is based on a true story and follows the lives of Katherine Coleman, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson.

And through that, we created a new frontier, a new goal. We reached beyond our planet. “We explore for the benefit of all human kind,” Jody Singer, deputy director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville and a 1983 graduate of UA’s industrial engineering program, said. “This country, this nation, this world has always been explorers. It's really the heart of who we are and what we do. It inspires us to look around the next corner. It inspires us to try to understand. We'll always have that inquisitive mind.”

Truths and Hidden Truths of Hidden Figures Hidden Figures is a movie that claims to be based on a true story. This story takes place in Hampton, Virginia during 1961, a time period when United States was racing against Russia to be the first in space. This movie talks about the NASA program and work behind putting a man in space, mainly about the responsibility of three African-American women: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, the ones who were the first in what they did.

The movie Hidden Figures is about 3 African American women who work for NASA during the 1950’s.The three women are Katherine Johnson,Dorothy Vaughn,and Mary Jackson.Katherine Johnson had a hidden talent that most of the people that worked at NASA didn't know she had , she was a master with the numbers.Dorothy was the manager of NASA's segregated West Area Computing Unit and she was also good with the numbers,just not as good as Katherine.Mary Jackson was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer that worked at NASA,along with the other three girls.Many African American women worked for NASA they just don't receive much recognition but these three women seem to have changed the game for everyone.

Some movies, such as Hidden Figures (2016), are important to current and historical social justice movements and it is easy to see their social and civic importance. Hidden Figures rather clearly addressed racism and sexism. The LEGO Batman Movie was less clear cut in its societal comments, but they were present. For example, the movie addressed the movement for gender equality with its depiction of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl. Gordon was shown in a position of power and leadership as the new police commissioner (The LEGO Batman Movie).

The 2016 historical film, Hidden Figures directed by Theodore Melfi which explores the themes of racism and sexism in America during the 1960’s. Melfi uses visual and verbal features of dialogue, costume and symbolism to display that sexism and racism is hard to abolish. The messages that Melfi conveys to the audience is that unequal pay and expected sexist uniforms are still present, but if we do something about it, it can be removed.

-The plot is simple and the subplots fit into it so nicely that the reader is scarcely aware that there is more than one story happening within the novel.

Katherine G. Johnson, the main character in Hidden Figures, looked beyond through working long hard hours and easily tackling problems due to the color of her skin. Despite these obstacles, this woman strikes the viewers by constantly enjoying every second of her journey and remaining respectful to those who don’t return it. Johnson’s powerful dialogue discloses the confidence within herself and how content she is with her actions. Katherine Johnson knew who she was clearly stated in her line,” I don’t have a feeling of inferiority. Never had.

1961 was an exciting time for Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Katherine Johnson. These women were Black and they worked at NASA Langley. The movie Hidden Figures opens with a young Katherine being tested and sent to a school where her education and skills of being a mathematician could be of better use to her. It then moves to a scene where the three women are stuck on the side of the road late for work and Dorothy Vaughan is under the care trying to fix what appeared to be a problem with the starter of her car. A white officer stops, asks a few questions and upon learning that these women were a part of the teams that were crucial in the great space race, he escorts them to work. Each of these women played leading roles in this movie and they each faced a different set of racial challenges.

The film ‘Hidden Figures’ directed by Theodore Melfi, Katherine, Mary and other African American woman who work at NASA but are stopped from achieving their goals because they are ‘coloured’. Melfi uses props, dialogue and music to manipulate the audience to think that racism takes effort to resolve, to not let racism stop you from doing/achieving what you want and that we are all human.