Unseen Yet Unstoppable : “Hidden Figures” Movie Adds Up

Black Women played a significant role in helping NASA launch into greatness that many haven’t heard about. While the names of the male astronauts of that era are well known there was much going on behind closed doors where women of color were key counterparts. These women are currently being portrayed in an upcoming movie by FOX 2000’s entitled, “Hidden Figures”. Set for release in 2017 this movie ( with Allison Schroeder perfecting the screenplay) will showcase these amazing women and the amazing contribution they made to history.

One of these notable women was Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson ( Read more here ) who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her contributions.

Now let’s note how these women and their roles came to be in the first place. In comedic summary:
After the war kicked off, the people running stuff had no one to do the work they needed. Now if you are like me you always wondered what was the point of everything starting from Algebra 1 on up but ladies this was it. They problem was they weren’t going to give you the “coins” you deserved and while some were flexing to show they were not discriminatory after President Roosevelt signed the order which promoted fair employment practices and such, they were hiring but you were hidden wayyyyyyy in the back. Well that’s my version…you can get the real and less comical deal on authors Margot Lee Shetterlys website, whose book (Hidden Figures: The African-American Women Mathematicians Who Helped NASA and the United States Win the Space Race: An Untold Story,)by the same name this movie is based on.

Watch the trailer here:

 

“These women were nearly all top graduates of historically black colleges such as Hampton Institute, Virginia State and Wilberforce University. Though they did the same work as the white women hired at the time, they were cloistered away in their own segregated office in the West Area of the Langley campus– thus the moniker, the West Computers. But despite the hardships of working under Virginia’s Jim Crow laws, these women went on to make significant contributions to aeronautics, astronautics, and America’s victory over the Soviet Union in the Space Race.”-from margotleeshetterly.com

With such notable faces as Taraji P. Henson, Kirsten Dunst, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe and Pharrell Williams on soundtrack duty, we see nothing but a win-win for this movie.