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Hidden Figures recounts the true story of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson. These three Black women are the protagonists in their own life stories set against the backdrop of the Space Race and the Civil Rights Movement. The racism and sexism they experience at both Langley and in their personal lives form the central conflict in this story. The inciting incident that sets their tale in motion is when Dorothy Vaughan accepts a job offer to work as a human computer at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia. 

Throughout the book, Shetterly shares stories from the women’s formative years that highlight racism and sexism they’ve always endured. Segregation affected the trajectory of the protagonists’ education and presented obstacles to their professional success. All three women displayed exceptional intellectual prowess from a young age, but Katherine was the only one who went on to graduate school, and she had to leave when she got pregnant. Shetterly uses these flashbacks to establish a pattern and demonstrate that the women have overcome obstacles since childhood and that as adults they are prepared to continue doing so. 

The acts of racism and racial tension at Langley and in the surrounding towns are a microcosm of the experiences of Black people throughout America. Shetterly gives readers perspective by providing historical context throughout the book. She details the changes in hiring practices that presented opportunities for Black people following World War II, how the government’s enforcement of segregation and other racist policies often prevented Black people from taking full advantage of new opportunities, and the ways that racist policies and ideologies continued to adversely affect society even after segregation ended, thereby painting a broad picture of the America in which they live.

Hidden Figures is a story about perseverance and triumph over adversity. The obstacles that the women face early in their lives, such as inadequate access to an education that will challenge their exceptional intellects and provide them with the tools for highly skilled work, are clear. The obstacles that they face early on at Langley, such as disrespect from colleagues and lack of access to the information they need to do their jobs properly, only become apparent as the women encounter them. Because the women are accustomed to having to be twice as good to get half as far as their white counterparts, they are better prepared for the professional obstacles that they face later on, when changes in technology and demand require them to pivot in order to remain vital to Langley’s operations. 

The lives and careers of all three protagonists are on a constant upward trajectory, and so is the arc of the story. Rather than following a “two steps forward, two steps back” type of pattern, however, the obstacles in their way establish a “two steps forward, stall” rhythm to the narrative. This rising, stop-and-start action creates tension up until the initial climax of the book, Katherine’s race against time checking the calculations of the electric computer and John Glenn’s subsequently successful flight. The tension of this scene and the jubilation that it leads to mirror the stress that looms over the entire nation during the Space Race, and sets the stage for the final climax of the moon landing.

The momentum of the Civil Rights Movement rises along the way to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a climax of the movement that Shetterly highlights prior to noting the commemoration of a milestone in Dorothy’s career in order to clarify the connection between Dorothy’s success and the work of those who came before her. Both Dorothy’s career and the action of the story plateau at this point, as more than three years pass between the speech and the tragic death of three astronauts. As the youngest of the three women, however, Katherine’s story is far from over, and the descriptions of her perseverance and of Christine Darden’s successful completion of graduate school before heading to Langley suggest that the momentum that Dorothy and her forebears created will continue long into the future.

While the 1969 moon landing is the main climax of the Space Race, it is not the main climax of the book or of the protagonists’ lives. The final chapter is the denouement where Shetterly juxtaposes the national euphoria surrounding the moon landing with the discontent that Black people in America feel as the result of continually facing injustices after years of fighting for equal rights. The Space Race, which began in 1957 when the Russians launched Sputnik and ended in 1969 when American astronauts landed on the moon, had a clear beginning, a definitive end, and an indisputable victor. The Civil Rights Movement spanned roughly the same timeframe, and while activists secured many important victories, the beginning, the end, and the winners are not as clearly cut. The other events in the final chapter make it clear that there is still a long way to go before all Americans can enjoy equality under the law and in the public imagination, but Katherine’s full-circle moment at the very end inspires hope that these achievements are possible.

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