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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How much did Dorothy Vaughan pay for her housing when she first started working at Langley?

2. What were the segregation laws called?

3. What were the employees at Langley warned against doing outside of the workplace during World War II?

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

5. What was the original name of NASA?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why were Howard and Dorothy Vaughan an uneven match for one another?

2. Why was it necessary for Melvin Butler to begin hiring black women as computers?

3. Why was Margery Hannah considered a pariah by some of her white coworkers?

4. How did the Jim Crow laws make public transportation difficult for both blacks and whites in Newport News?

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

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

7. What was the goal of NACA during World War II?

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

9. What does Shetterly want for the women she writes about in Hidden Figures?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay discussing Shetterly’s motives for writing Hidden Figures. What does she mean when she says that past events can help shed light on the modern world? What insight does Hidden Figures provide about the modern world?

Essay Topic 2

Melvin Butler saw the need for hiring black women as human computers due to a shortage in the workforce created by the war. How did the way in which Butler hired the women and brought them into Langley affect how they were treated or accepted in the workplace? Cite specific examples of the practices or structures he put into place and how they influenced the way in which black women were received in the workplace.

Essay Topic 3

Mary Jackson’s humanitarian work outside of Langley informed the direction of her career. Write an essay describing the work that Mary did outside and inside of Langley and how the two were interconnected. Why did Mary make the move to Human Resources and how did her humanitarian work influence the work she did in that department?

(see the answer keys)

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