Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

I finished this book this month shortly before the passing of Katherine Johnson who lived a long and distinguished life and is a real American hero.  My daughter has a children's book about Katherine that she loves to read. 

Hidden Figures is an impeccably researched book that follows the lives of the first black Computers at NACA (later NASA). These brilliant minds like Dorothy Vaughn, Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson worked their way up through a system that was stacked against them to gain success and respect. The fact that Katherine Johnson was brilliant enough to probably be a head at NASA is not lost on the reader, but in the 1950s-1970s, that was just not going to happen for a black woman and it's truly NASA's loss.

I loved the strong supportive community Shetterly describes among the women of West Computing. That Dorothy and Mary both made choices to boost up others around them for opportunities and deserved accolades at the expense of their own career trajectories.

The scope of the book was enormous. Beginning in the late years of WWII through the hey day of the space program, Hidden Figures sheds light on the contributions of black women and some men to the programs that shaped our imaginations and air superiority. I loved the extra details about Nichelle Nichols and how Martin Luther King Jr. himself convinced her to stick with Star Wars to show that science and the future was multi-racial and multi-gender.

While this book can get a little tedious when the science meets the page, it's the enduring spirit of Dorothy, Mary, and Katherine that keep bringing the reader back to the text.

4/5 Stars.