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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. Why did the NAACP file a lawsuit against Booker T. Washington High School in Virginia?

2. Why did Dorothy Vaughan sometimes put dinner on the table for her children and then walk around the block before eating?

3. Who hid the "colored computers" sign from the cafeteria?

4. Where did Mary Jackson attend college?

5. What event caused the need for Langley to initially hire black women?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why did Dorothy Vaughan work in the laundry at Camp Pickett in the summers?

3. How did Dorothy Vaughan become Head of West Computing?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay explaining the concept of the “Double V.” What did African American leaders mean by this term? In what ways were African American soldiers particularly affected by the Double V? How did the Double V affect African Americans working at Langley?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay comparing advances in aeronautics to advances in the civil rights movement. How do the two interconnect? Do the two advance at the same rate? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Langley indicates that segregation was not only detrimental to black Americans, but also to white Americans. Write an essay describing the negative impacts of segregation on America as a whole. How did segregation impact the education system? How did it impact transportation? How did it impact world affairs?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 912 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample