Book: Hidden Figures
Author: Margot Lee Shetterly
Pages: 346
Price: 499
ISBN: 978-0-00-820132-6
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers India
Ever imagine where the word ‘Computer’ came from? You’d think it is a beeping machine that does complicated calculations to come up with results that humans would struggle to do.
Dorothy Vaughan. Katherine Johnson. Mary Jackson. Christine Darden. Back in the day, these were the names that held the title of computers; the human computers for NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics)—an organisation that is today, better known as NASA. And they came upon this title because they computed—complex mathematical calculations, as if they were machines in flesh and bone who used pencils to sketch the future. Little did they know that their temporary jobs as mathematicians at NACA would some day put them on their way to winning the Space Race for the United States of America against their Cold War Russian rivals. Stop. Rewind.
Set in the town of Hampton, Virginia was a settlement of African-American scientists, teachers, doctors and mathematicians. The women of this town (if educated) would have the privilege of being teachers at best. But with the men out to serve the nation during World War ll, NACA had no choice but to open their doors to anybody who could fill in the vacancies, even if they were women. And that’s where the story begins.
Amidst a lot of mathematical calculations, terms and theories, the book that was written about a time several decades ago, brought up questions that seem to be relevant even today. The struggles of the women in the corporate world, trying to have a stand, make a noise and push the glass ceiling would make any woman today feel privileged, yet empathetic. But the African-American women had a tougher story to tell. They were smart, hard-working and… coloured. Which is why, they had to use the coloured bathrooms, sit at the coloured cafeteria tables, drink from the coloured fountains, send their children to coloured schools. The list never ended. But their resolve of integrating the world only became stronger by the day. Through the narrative, you see the women go from being mere outsiders to becoming major assets for NACA. So much so that before John Glenn got onto the spaceship to orbit the Earth, he made sure “the girl” re-checked the calculations that the computer had generated. That was an achievement for Katherine Johnson. Even though John didn’t know her name, he knew that she was good at what she did. And that was a start.
It’s a pity that we always studied about the men who conquered space, the men who made it to the moon. But for a change, it was refreshing to learn about the women who were the hidden figures behind these men; the ones who actually made it happen. Discrimination, segregation and the civil rights movement were some of the themes in the book that expelled a lot of information on the state of affairs back then. From the Brown v. Board of Education case to the Jim Crow laws, Margot Lee Shetterly brought in the historical aspects of the story seamlessly. For example, while a county in Virgina closed all of its public schools for five years to stop integration of different races, their Russian counterparts were racing ahead by providing education for anyone who had the hunger to learn. That was when the USSR beat the Americans with the launch of Sputnik, another historic event. America realised the importance of unity and transformed NACA to NASA with an aim to reach the moon. And for the first time, the most deserving women at the organisation got the coveted post of Engineers.
Shetterly managed to give us a fresh perspective to the World War ll, the Cold War and many such historic events through the lens of the African-American women and their deeds. But what was lacking in the book was how these women felt while these events took place. Dorothy Vaughan was a strong real-life character who played the lead in the former part of the book only to fade out towards the end while Katherine Johnson’s achievements were accounted for without having the reader feel for the hard-work she had put in.
But through all of this, one thing was certain, NACA the place where America’s future was conceived, was the same place that broke away from regressive systems, got past restrictions and took a large step towards racial harmony. Although this forward drive wasn’t done in a day, it would be unfortunate for the world to retrace the steps, only to stand in a place full of segregation, racial differences, gender-inequality and lower glass-ceilings.
It is our choice to take a step forward from where our predecessors left us. But are we going to take it?
