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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many women, both black and white, were working as computers when Dorothy Vaughan started at Langley?
(a) 20.
(b) 500+.
(c) 200+.
(d) 100.

2. What was the name of the group of black pilots whose exploits were closely followed by the black community during World War II?
(a) The Black Panthers.
(b) The Negro Air Patrol.
(c) The African American Airmen.
(d) The Tuskegee Airmen.

3. What was the name of the personnel officer at Langley Research Center when Dorothy Vaughan began working there?
(a) Asa Phillip Randolph.
(b) Melvin Butler.
(c) John Glenn.
(d) Thomas Byrdsong.

4. Why did the NAACP file a lawsuit against Booker T. Washington High School in Virginia?
(a) They were not offering black students the same opportunities as white students.
(b) They would not hire black teachers.
(c) They were not allowing black students to attend classes there.
(d) They were paying black teachers less than white teachers.

5. What effect did V-J day have on the workforce in the area surrounding Langley?
(a) Many workers were laid off.
(b) There was a need to hire additional workers.
(c) Employers began paying their employees less.
(d) Employers began paying their employees more.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Asa Phillip Randolph's position when he threatened to lead a march on Washington if war jobs were not opened to blacks?

2. What did the local living around Langley Research Center call the people who worked at Langley because of their eccentric behavior?

3. What notable member of the U.S. Navy visited Langley shortly before Dorothy Vaughan arrived?

4. What did Dorothy Vaughan do in the summer of 1944 to make her situation more permanent?

5. How did Shetterly know the woman that her father told her was a human computer, thus sparking her interest in the topic?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why was it so difficult for Dorothy Vaughan to leave Farmville for her new job at Langley?

2. How did Shetterly's childhood affect the way she thought of blacks working in science, math, and engineering?

3. Why did William Claytor create special classes just for Katherine Goble Johnson?

4. Why were employees of NACA warned not to speak of their work outside the office during World War II?

5. What did some supervisors at Langley do to encourage talented female computers to remain on the job?

6. How did designating women as "subprofessionals" help the laboratory?

7. What did Mary Winston Jackson try to teach the girls in the Girl Scouts troop that she lead?

8. What was the attitude of the male engineers when a human computer made an error?

9. What observation did black leaders make concerning the events occurring in Europe during World War II?

10. Why did millions of American women lose their jobs after V-J Day?

(see the answer keys)

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