Description

This week, we read the Author’s Note, Prologue, and Chapters 1—8 of Margot Lee Shetterly’s book, Hidden Figures. I know that many of you have seen the 2016 film of the same name, which we’ll watch together a few weeks from now. In these opening chapters, we learn a great deal about the participation of African-American women in mathematical work at NACA, along with the federal policies that made such work possible. We meet Dorothy Vaughan and the women who worked as mathematicians in the West Computing group at Langley Research Center. We also meet Katherine Goble who—with Dorothy Vaughan—is a character central to both the book and the film.

Describe at least three different facts or ideas—about the early life of Dorothy Vaughan, the history of African-Americans in mathematics, the history of African-American women computers at NACA, and the history of segregation in the US.

What aspects of this history are new or surprising to you? Where do you find connections with what we’ve already learned about the history of women and African-Americans in the mathematical sciences? Aim for a response that is 3–4 paragraphs long.