Hidden Figures Sociology

Dorothy Vaughan, Born September 20, 1910 in Kansas city. At age two her mother passed away, her father did remarry, her stepmother became a big force with her education she taught her how to read before she went to school. Dorothy was able to go up two grades at age eight. She graduated from Beechurst High school in 1925 at age nineteen, four years later she received a bachelor science degree from Wilberforce University in Ohio as a B,A. She became a math teacher got married and had six children, Leonard , Maida, Ann, Kenneth, Michael and Donald. Mrs.Vaughan set her sights to graduate at Howard University because she felt like she had responsibility for her family. Dorothy was hired by NASA December 1943 during World War 2. She was assigned

At JPL, racial setbacks were less prominent as women of different races and ethnicities cooperated. On the other hand, the Langley Research Center was segregated and the women in the West Area Computing Division were isolated from the rest of the research center. This separation is shown immediately when Katherine Johnson is the first colored women working with the Space Task Group. When Katherine enters the room, she is mistaken for a custodian and handed the trash can. Later, when she pours coffee for herself, all the white people in the department stare at her in disbelief. The following day, she finds a separate kettle for herself labeled “Colored”. In addition, when Mary Jackson is working with the engineers on the space capsule, one of the head engineers asks her if she would like to be an engineer if she was a white man. She responds that she wouldn’t have to wish, she’d already be one. Apart from the racial differences between the two pieces of literature, the struggle for women getting new positions during that time was depicted very differently. In Hidden Figures, both Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson underwent multiple barriers to be able to get their desired position; Dorothy as a supervisor and Mary as an engineer. Dorothy was promoted to supervisor by Ms. Mitchell at the very end and Mary had to go to court to see a judge to be able to

http://www.nasc.org/nasc/nasc/nasc/nasc/nasc/nasc/nasc/nas This is important because she gained a brand new skill that was very important since this type of skill develops logical thinking. In general, she had made a significant impact on NASA by becoming an engineer and helping NASA be able to use her data to help future flights and be able to attain their goals in space exploration. Another remarkable woman, Dorothy Vaughan, significantly impacted NASA during the Space Race. She began her position at NASA as a human computer by leading a group of African American female computers.

Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vahn were women who worked at NASA during the 1960’s. They made history by setting the foundation for many African American women to come. Katherine Johnson was the woman with the most challenging obstacles and greatest impact because of the struggles in her education and workplace that paved the way for African American women to join NASA. One hardship she had to deal with was the relocation of her family to school. When Katherine Johnson finished eighth grade, she couldn’t continue her education and because of her brilliant mind, she wanted to go further, but that came with a problem.

Progression in technology comes with progression of education. The movie “Hidden Figures” highlights the opportunities involved when intelligent, courageous women take strides to create the math to send astronauts to the moon. This movie is about three historical African American women who worked as “human computers” at the NASA Research Center in Langley, VA in the early 1960’s. Katherine Johnson (fellow mathematician), Dorothy Vaughn (programmer) and Mary Jackson (engineer), contributed to NASA space program to successfully send John Glenn, the first man to orbit around the earth, Project Mercury and later Apollo II mission. The film is a powerful reminder of the destructive consequences of discrimination. It holds important career lessons about how to manage and excel at work even under challenging circumstances.

Four courageous women known as Katherine Goble, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Christine Darden set out on a mission. They were determined to be the first successful African American women who worked for NASA. They went many rough times to achieve all that they did. They experienced success and failure at times. In this book, there are many traditions and actions that show how this culture was treated and looked at by many other races.

After being chosen to work on such an important matter., Katherine was not truly accepted as a co-worker. She couldn’t use the bathroom in the building that she worked in because there wasn’t any bathrooms for colored people. Even down to the coffee pot her’s had to be labeled colored. Katherine seemed to be overwhelmed in the way she had been treated all she wanted to do was be of help. Katherine couldn't be denied her skill, witch paved the way into the NASA meanings. There she was to be able to show her talent behind the

Often in many films that undermine African Americans, they are depicted as thief's, murders, or unintelligent. These images are used to show that African Americans are unlike their white counterparts. According to Friedman, "This formulation undermines the racially and sexually based violence toward African Americans, wiping out the memory of rape, castration, and lynching of slaves that occurred in the past" (Friedman). The development of African American films, or films that truly put African Americans in any type of positive light did not really start to occur until the 1970's or 1980's. Before then films were often negative in spirit. Paula Massood describes the Hollywood depictions of African Americans in the previous era as, "failing to recognize the sociopolitical changes in the American landscape. African American characters most often appeared within a southern setting, largely ignoring the black city space and culture that figured in the lives and the imaginations of a vast majority of African Americans" (Massood). However, in the following years the development and progression of African American films was able to be seen.

From analyzing Hidden Figures, the movie recognizes the prejudice that black women of that time have experienced in and out of the work place. Vaughn plays a very valuable role in Hidden Figures as a motherly figure to not only her children but to black women whom she worked with.

Hidden Figures was set in Hampton, Virginia in 1961. Each woman was a genius from birth and their abilities were taken for granted in a white, male dominant work place. Their intelligence was a huge part of the success in the launch of the first American into space. One prominent hardship in Hidden Figures was sexism. Women had to work in male dominated places and that sometimes proved to be a hostile environment. For women of color in the Jim Crow era, it was double jeopardy dealing with gender and race in the work place. (Odonkor) Sexism was demonstrated many times throughout the movie by a denial of opportunities. For example, Katherine struggled to

The scene in the movie where she requests to attend the board meeting in order to stay up to date with the changing math is true. She questions the sexist “protocol” that’s in place and earns herself a seat in the meeting. Since she stayed current with the math, she accurately determined the landing coordinates for John Glenn’s first American orbit and helped NASA create history. Johnson did not do it alone, rather there were hundreds of more African-American working as computers at NASA, it was not just the small group of computers headed by Vaughan. The movie still conveys a compelling message that women are brilliant and passionate in regards to their work

Hidden Figures is a 2016 film that recounts the story of three incredible black women in NASA history: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. The film largely sheds light on the experiences of these three women working as computers for NASA during 1960s segregated America. Public restrooms are separated between the whites and coloreds, the white male patriarchy dominates the field, and as always, racism is alive and well. During the film, the political unrest of the country is present and very much of conversation, and as these three women navigate their way throughout society with positions no one expects them to hold, they quite literally make history through their groundbreaking work, history

Hidden Figures, an extraordinary film that shines light on women existence and their intelligence. The women, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan used the power of their intelligence to decipher complex math calculations, computer language to build rockets that other could not see. Throughout the movie racial descrepancies were vividly clear, but these eager women had something to stand for. They dared not let the words of bitterness deter them of their worth.

Katherine Johnson proved to be an intelligent and an intrepid character. She was proud to be negro and was quiet, yet when provoked, she stood up for herself and expressed her thoughts. These attributed were showcased many times throughout the film Hidden Figures. As the main character, she fulfilled that role and had a hard-working mentality. Such as staying behind at work and working overtime. Her extensive knowledge of mathematics proved that dark-skinned women are worthy of going to college and working in a society where all people are treated equally.

Katherine Johnson is the main focus in the movie. She gets moved from the West computers where the colored women work to work for Al Harrison who is the director of the space test group in the East Area. Katherine Goble Johnson becomes Harrison’s analytical geometry computer. When she gets there one of the men give her the trash can because he thinks that she is the custodian. Also, Katherine goes to get a cup of coffee and all the men stare at her. The next day there is a coffee pot that says colored. Katherine goes to poor it but the pot is empty. Then Katherine has to use the bathroom and asks her supervisor where’s the bathroom and her supervisor says “I don’t know where your bathroom is.” So she ends up having to run half a mile to the bathroom and back. Further on in the movie Johnson goes to bathroom on a rainy day and when she comes back Al asks her where she goes everyday for 40 minutes. Katherine ends up flipping out explaining that she gets paid poorly,can’t afford pearls,and how she feels because all of them don’t wanna touch the coffee pot just because she’s a colored woman. In the end Katherine goes on to perform calculations for the Apollo II mission to the moon and space shuttle. The movie states that in 2016 there was a building dedicated for her and her work with space travel called Katherine Goble Johnson Computational Building. Also, at the age of ninety seven she was awarded with the Presidential medal of freedom. One of Katherine’s colleges that