Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Living... in Virginia in the early 1960’s when Jim Crow laws ruled the South.
Profession... employee at NASA’s Langley Research Center. She informally leads a group of 20 black women in the West Computing Group. They manually calculate the mathematics necessary to enable launch and landing of rockets. They’re proud to be doing their part to prepare astronaut John Glenn for his mission to become the first American to orbit Earth. Dorothy does the work of a supervisor, but she doesn’t have a title or salary to show for it.
Interests... her family. Dorothy wants the best for her two boys, and she tries to mentor them about how to handle the discrimination they all face. She tells them that “separate and equal aren’t the same thing… If you act right, you are right.”
Relationship status... happily married. She is determined to help her friend Katherine to find someone too—even though Katherine hasn’t asked for any help in that department.
Challenge... keeping her job. There are rumors that her department will be laid off with the upcoming IBM 7090 data processing system that has the capability of solving over twenty-four thousand multiplications per second. Determined to stay relevant, Dorothy seeks out a book from the library on the programming language FORTRAN that powers the IBM computer. After studying it herself, she plans on getting the women she supervises to get with the times and learn about the latest technology.
Personality... determined, tenacious, and adaptable. Dorothy is the unspoken leader with her two best friends. She tries to further herself when all the odds are stacked against her. In spite of the cruel treatment she endures, she is committed to improve her life and teaches everyone she cares about to do the same.
Get to Know her in...
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The untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, brilliant African-American women working at NASA and serving as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history. They are behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big.
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The #1 New York Times bestseller The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among 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’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s 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’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Even as Virginia’s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley’s all-black “West Computing” 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. Starting 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’s 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’s future.
