"Hidden Figures"

 

 

Not the film adaptation cover, which
ironically obscures the actual people!

"Hidden Figures" is a historical account of the important and often unrecognized role African American women have played in U.S. aeronautical and space research. It focuses on the contributions of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson from the 1930s through the 1960s as computers (all that rocket science math used to be done by hand!), researchers, and engineers at NACA, and its successor organization NASA.

When I requested the book from the library, I ended up with the young readers' edition. I did notice that this edition didn't really discuss racism – it simply presented situations (e.g. segregated cafeteria tables), the women's response (taking down the signs), and left it at that. It also featured simpler sentence structure (or alternately, less ponderous prose) than I typically see in academic histories, but that's not a bad thing. On the other hand, with passages like "Specialization became the key to managing the increasingly complex nature of aeronautical research in the postwar era," these kids must still be pretty gifted young readers!

Verdict: a compelling history celebrating the scientific contributions of Johnson, Vaughan, and Jackson, as well as how they paved the way for future black women. Recommended.