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Chapters One & Two

Summary: Chapter One: A Door Opens

In 1938, as war in Europe seems increasingly likely, President Roosevelt challenges America’s aircraft industry to dramatically increase its output. By 1940, U.S. aircraft production far exceeds that of the Germany or Japan. Government oversight and support are provided by NACA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Langley Field in Hampton, Virginia, is home to Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, a NACA facility. The lab is rapidly expanding its capacity to test new aircraft designs and suggest improvements to manufacturers. New physical facilities are constantly being built, and Melvin Butler, the head of personnel, has to hire more and more staff. To support the engineers, he needs “computers”—human mathematicians who can analyze the numerical data from wind tunnel tests. In the past few years, this has become a job for women. They have proven to be good at the work, and because their pay is less than men’s, Langley saves money.

By 1943, however, Butler is struggling to hire enough women calculators. Two years earlier, a threatened strike by the railroad porters’ union, led by A. Philip Randolph, prompted Roosevelt to sign two executive orders to desegregate the defense industry. Now, Butler is seeing increasing numbers of applications from Black women wanting to work as mathematicians. We don’t know what Butler may think privately about race, but whatever those views are, he respects competence and needs all the help he can get. Given the social rules of the time, a racially integrated workplace is not possible. In a just-completed building, Butler quietly sets up a segregated workspace for the Black women.

Summary: Chapter Two: Mobilization

By the summer of 1943, American troops have been fighting in World War II for a year and a half. Camp Pickett, thirty miles from Farmville, Virginia, is one of many training centers that Black and white soldiers pass through before embarking for Europe. Dorothy Vaughan, a Black mother of four, is working in the camp laundry. The work is hard, and the pay, 40 cents per hour, is low for war workers. However, that wage is more than what Dorothy earns as a high school math teacher during the rest of the year.

Dorothy was born in 1910. A gifted student, she skipped two grades on the way to becoming high school valedictorian. She studied math in college, and a professor recommended she go on to graduate school. The Great Depression had begun, however, and so, to help support her parents, she instead became a math teacher. By 1943, she had a family of her own and was teaching at Farmville’s Negro high school. In the spring, she applied for the Camp Pickett job, to earn extra money that would someday help to pay for her children’s college educations. However, Dorothy felt inspired by a newspaper article about Black women at Hampton Institute, near the Langley facility, studying to be engineers. When she saw a notice advertising jobs for women with knowledge of mathematics to work at Langley, she filled out an application for that job, too.

Analysis: Chapters One & Two

The reductive language of the time appears throughout Hidden Figures, and it mirrors the reductive manner in which society views women of color. Shetterly uses words like “Negro,” “Colored,” and “Indian” in the narrative in order to stay true to the era and to convey societal norms in the United States in the 1940s through the 1960s. These norms also included referring to grown women as “girls,” and while it was not uncommon for people to refer to white women as “girls” as well, they might also refer to white women of a certain status by the genteel title “ladies.” The fact that the Black women in the book remain “girls” in the eyes of their white peers, despite their advanced education and professional responsibilities, illustrates that society did not see these women as deserving of equal status regardless of their accomplishments. 

Referring to the women as “computers” instead of giving them a proper title echoes the same reductive language as referring to them as girls. While actual computers were in their infancy during the years that the book details, the employees of NACA and NASA would have had more exposure to the concept of computing machines than the average citizen of that time. Referring to the women as “computers” allows their superiors to simultaneously invest in the accuracy of the women’s computations while viewing them as less than human. Computers compute and they do so reliably, but they do not make decisions, inspire a team, or feel human emotions. Equating the women to computers is a leap in logic that allows others to view them as being separate from and inherently unequal to them.

Shetterly establishes the theme of overcoming racism and sexism when the protagonists obtain positions that challenge society’s preconceived notions of what Black women can achieve. The era following World War II was a period when men held the vast majority of positions of power in the United States and the prevailing attitude was that African Americans were unfit for highly skilled jobs. Men in charge of hiring did not look beyond race, color, and gender in order to find the most qualified candidates to fill open positions. The fact that the women are successful in obtaining these sought-after positions foreshadows the obstacles that they will overcome, and the knowledge that their work will have a lasting impact on military technology highlights how short-sighted these hiring practices were.

Dorothy’s innate intelligence contributes to her success in achieving her educational goals, but it is her pragmatism and perseverance that allow her to advance professionally. Dorothy displays academic aptitude and advanced skills from a young age, but the strong work ethic that she brings to jobs that are below her skill set and pay grade allow her to recognize opportunities when they arise and prepare her for the challenges ahead. The job at Langley is just such an opportunity and, when Dorothy applies for it, she exhibits the same pragmatism that Melvin does when he adjusts his hiring practices to accommodate more Black women. 

Farmville’s Negro high school is a symbol of hope. Despite limited opportunities for Black students, their parents’ decision to send their children to high school illustrates that they are nonetheless optimistic about their children's futures. Just as Dorothy initially became a teacher in order to support her parents, the students at the school are also old enough to work and have the ability to contribute to their families’ income. The confidence that these parents show in sending their children to high school and sacrificing current opportunities for financial gain to secure a brighter future for their children signifies that they believe a better future is possible.

Next section Chapters Three & Four

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