Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race

Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race
Margot Lee Shetterly

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURETop 10 Sunday Times BestsellerSet amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program.Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as ‘Human Computers’, calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts, these ‘colored computers’ used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.Moving from World War II through NASA’s golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the women’s rights movement, ‘Hidden Figures’ interweaves a rich history of mankind’s greatest adventure with the intimate stories of five courageous women whose work forever changed the world.

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_a1f40aa5-8b7d-5bed-8ccc-3613d6c20cdb)

William Collins

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2016

First published in the United States by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, in 2016

Copyright © 2016 by Margot Lee Shetterly

Margot Lee Shetterly asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

Source ISBN: 9780008201289

Ebook Edition © September 2016 ISBN: 9780008201302

Version: 2018-09-26

DEDICATION (#ulink_7f808e3f-1fdc-5f54-b4c3-1860cac2dbfc)

To my parents, Margaret G. Lee and Robert B. Lee III, and to all of the women at the NACA and NASA who offered their shoulders to stand on

CONTENTS

Cover (#u5e3ec0ae-712c-5fc6-9e38-bed0b53a0e5a)

Title Page (#u46d3e5d4-ead4-59a6-aa48-42fac4eb99f3)

Copyright (#u621f4ce2-8341-5ec7-aa29-c090a3b1fb2f)

Dedication (#u27c11ea5-cf5e-5228-be31-b13e6cf2fa6b)

Author’s Note (#u472592e3-f065-5f42-a687-1cd9519b60ed)

Prologue (#u49a8caf6-46f0-506d-aec6-a246a59dcd5d)

1 A Door Opens (#u7415828a-1968-546b-9747-757b2947e176)

2 Mobilization (#u228e86b4-98fb-5173-916c-d47c998428af)

3 Past Is Prologue (#ub4da8e58-d3ae-57b5-9bdf-6a1ce717c759)

4 The Double V (#ud7896d17-03c6-5d13-9c52-3f95a97f2ebe)

5 Manifest Destiny (#u48fafd56-5752-5850-af23-0f82dec2eb11)

6 War Birds (#u8c9947c2-e95a-538c-8074-81ab98db9f54)

7 The Duration (#ud64db966-a00a-5d09-bb6f-db2c36c7e1a8)

8 Those Who Move Forward (#u45f222e8-1392-58b0-9ad3-2434f8f432ec)

9 Breaking Barriers (#litres_trial_promo)

10 Home by the Sea (#litres_trial_promo)

11 The Area Rule (#litres_trial_promo)

12 Serendipity (#litres_trial_promo)

13 Turbulence (#litres_trial_promo)

14 Angle of Attack (#litres_trial_promo)

15 Young, Gifted, and Black (#litres_trial_promo)

16 What a Difference a Day Makes (#litres_trial_promo)

17 Outer Space (#litres_trial_promo)

18 With All Deliberate Speed (#litres_trial_promo)

19 Model Behavior (#litres_trial_promo)

20 Degrees of Freedom (#litres_trial_promo)

21 Out of the Past, the Future (#litres_trial_promo)

22 America Is for Everybody (#litres_trial_promo)

23 To Boldly Go (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)