{"description": "\"Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as \u201chuman computers\u201d used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.\r\n\r\nAmong these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South\u2019s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America\u2019s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam\u2019s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.\r\n\r\nEven as Virginia\u2019s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley\u2019s all-black \u201cWest Computing\u201d group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens.\r\n\r\nStarting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA\u2019s greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances and used their intellect to change their own lives, and their country\u2019s future.\" --source: Harper Collins Publishers", "covers": [10661694, 7894801, 8435125, 8846231, 10201337, 10525620, -1, 12101529], "key": "/works/OL17598637W", "authors": [{"author": {"key": "/authors/OL7478239A"}, "type": {"key": "/type/author_role"}}], "title": "Hidden Figures", "subjects": ["United States", "African American mathematicians", "United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "African American women", "Officials and employees", "Women mathematicians", "Employees", "Biography", "Space race", "United states, national aeronautics and space administration", "African americans, biography", "Mathematicians, biography", "United states, officials and employees", "United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration", "African Americans", "Women", "Mathematics", "African American", "People & Places", "Mathematicians", "Biography & Autobiography", "Science & Technology", "Aeronautics, history", "Women, biography, juvenile literature", "Women, united states, biography", "Afronorteamericanas matem\u00e1ticas", "Estados Unidos. Administraci\u00f3n Nacional de Aeron\u00e1utica y Espacio", "Funcionarios y empleados", "Estados Unidos", "Biograf\u00eda", "Mujeres matem\u00e1ticas", "Mujeres afroamericanas", "Carrera en el espacio", "nyt:combined-print-and-e-book-nonfiction=2016-09-25", "New York Times bestseller", "Large type books", "20th Century", "SOCIAL SCIENCE", "Ethnic Studies", "African American Studies", "Raumfahrtprogramm", "Mathematikerin", "Femmes scientifiques", "Biographies", "Sexisme dans les sciences", "Noirs", "Se gre gation", "Conqu\u00a9\u00aete de l'espace", "Astronautics", "Hitory", "Umschulungswerkst\u00a9\u00detten f\u00a9\u01a1r Siedler und Auswanderer", "S\u00e9gr\u00e9gation", "Conqu\u00eate de l'espace", "Umschulungswerkst\u00e4tten f\u00fcr Siedler und Auswanderer"], "type": {"key": "/type/work"}, "subject_places": ["NASA Langley Research Center", "United States", "Estados Unidos"], "subject_times": ["Cold War", "World War II"], "subject_people": ["Mary Jackson", "Katherine Johnson", "Dorothy Vaughan", "Miriam Mann", "John Glenn", "John F. Kennedy", "Mary Jackson (1921-2005)", "Christine M. Darden", "Dorothy Vaughan (1910-2008)", "Katherine G. Johnson"], "latest_revision": 37, "revision": 37, "created": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2016-11-24T12:50:47.487742"}, "last_modified": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2026-04-16T14:00:43.995582"}}