Hidden Figures: Katherine G. Jonson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson

Three women, did we know about them, or should we?

hidden figures poster

Summary

Hidden Figures, is a story from the 60s when Black people and women were discriminated against even more than now. Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, working at NASA, contributed to launching astronaut John Glenn into space. It was an astonishing achievement in US space history. Right after the successful satellite launched by Russia, NASA stepped up its efforts.

Katherine Johnson became a member of the space task group. It was a great opportunity for her to show her talent; however, there were some difficulties for her, being a Black woman. She could not use the toilet in her office building but had to run to another building where the toilet for Black people were. She could not use the coffee pot either. The day after she used it, there was a tag marked ‘colored’ on a separate pot for her. Even while she was doing her work, she had to read through documents with some parts that were redacted which was done by her colleague who didn’t like working with a Black woman. However, she was able to read those parts by holding the papers towards the light. Trying everything she could, she helped the space mission to be successful. One day she met a man at a barbecue and they became interested in each other. But because he said something foolish which was about women’s inability to do math, she walked away from him. After time passed and as he regretted his words, she gradually opened herself to him and they got marriage in the end.

Mary Jackson was challenging herself to become the first Black female engineer in NASA. The steps for becoming an engineer were tough but she was close to completing the requirements. But there was a problem. She had to attend classes at a school which was only for white people. She went to court and tried to convince the judge to grant her permission to join the school. After persuading the judge, she finally got to go to night classes at the school to complete the final steps for the engineering degree.

Dorothy Vaughan, who had great mechanical skills, which she was taught by her father, was the unofficial supervisor of Black women in a part of the base where Black people worked. She was also good at anticipating technological changes and adapting herself and her colleagues to those changes. She learned ‘Fortran’, a program language, which was a chance for her to hop to the next stage a bit faster than other people. She had an argument at the library which had segregated section of books for ‘colored people.’ After that she stole a book from the section which was not in the ‘colored’ section. She taught herself the skills for using IBM computers, which was the new generation’s technique: an electronic device for calculating. After she could prove her talent through her knowledge of and experience in engineering, she finally became an official supervisor for that work.

Scenes about breaking down discrimination

Both scenes have quite big impacts. The man in both scenes is Al Harrison, who acts as a character who fight against the discrimination that the main characters go through. The first scene was the next day when he knew that Dorothy was spending time to go to the toilet for ‘colored people,’ which was far from her office. He breaks down a sign that indicates it is a toilet only for ‘colored’ people. He said that there is no longer a toilet for ‘colored’ people – there is just a toilet that anyone can use. The second scene shows when Dorothy was invited to a private meeting, which was held every day. During this meeting a new trajectory is chosen for the spacecraft’s flight. To know the numbers for accomplishing this task, Dorothy wanted to attend the meeting. Through Harrison’s trust and flexibility, she could attend the meeting, becoming a key member for solving the problem by specifying the specific number which before had been a ballpark figure for the flight’s trajectory.

#BLACK LIVES MATTER

BLM is “an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise”*. This was created in response to the acquittal of Tryvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman, which occurred in 2013. Black people say that this injustice is still a part of their everyday lives. They still have to fight for their innocence against governmental authority. In May of this year, other protests started after the killing of George Floyd while he was being arrested by the Minneapolis Police. The point is that police, in 2020, truly did use excessive force.

Back to the movie. Those three women who fought their way for their dreams dreamed of a better world in the future. Where are we now? We are still in the middle of nowhere, with people uniting to speak up for innocent people’s lives. #BLM we have to say and we have to take action. Those who made the changes and who were victims for changes, we must remember them and protect them.

*Definition from blacklivesmatter.com

Conclusion

I thought I knew something about Black lives. I now know that I have to learn much more. After watching the movie, I looked up more information. I watched some news from the US and some videos made from people who were actually still living in a country where they still need a lot of changes.

Sixty years have passed since the 1960s. Things have changed since the time of the movie, but they haven’t improved completely. There are more challenges needed. In Hidden Figures there are unprecedented transitions. In fact, these changes should be ongoing, not only about Black lives but also about women’s, neglected in many different fields. It should be known for more people of how a lot of things are being devalued being Black, being woman. This movie really makes us think of the people, the women, the Black people who had great achievements that are just fading into the past. Remembering their achievements and their hard time, we should know more about them just the same as other influential figures in history.

Choi Seoyoung think0412@naver.com

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