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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. What did the students in Christine Mann Darden's high school worry about when they heard the Brown v. Board of Education decision?

2. What Supreme Court announcement did Katherine Goble Johnson discuss with her male coworkers?

3. Why was it difficult for Mary Jackson to attend engineering classes at Hampton High School?

4. What was the name of the first satellite the Russian's put into orbit?

5. Why did Langley employees hold meetings and social gatherings in their own Activities Building in the 1950s?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why was there a push toward space for Americans after Russia launched Sputnik?

2. Why did NASA move the space program to Houston?

3. Why did the talk that Mary Jackson and Emma Jean gave to a group of girls have such a great impact on the girls?

4. Why did Dorothy Lee regret agreeing with a reporter when she said that women had to act like ladies in the workplace?

5. Why did Katherine Goble Johnson decide not to let the engineer who walked away from her when she sat at a desk bother her?

6. Why was the U.S. Army called to a school in Little Rock, Arkansas?

7. What made the theoretical group an especially good place for women to work?

8. Why was Katherine Goble Johnson warned not to ask for a transfer to an engineering group when she started working at Langley?

9. How did the governor of Virginia respond to the Brown v. Board of Education ruling and what was the result?

10. Why did Mary Jackson think it was important for her son to participate in the soap box derby?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shetterly writes about how the area surrounding Langley Research Center affected those working at Langley. Write an essay describing the area and the way it impacted lives of African Americans living and working in the area. What was the area like? What housing was available to African Americans? How did being located in a segregated area affect Langley Research Center?

Essay Topic 2

Women working at Langley were subjected to gender stereotypes that influenced the way that the men they worked with treated them. Write an essay discussing the gender stereotypes that were in play at the time and how those stereotypes affected the women who worked at Langley. How did their male coworkers feel about the work the women did? How did the stereotypes affect women’s possibilities for advancing in their careers?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay explaining why Shetterly includes a discussion of the original Star Trek television series. What was important about the series? How did it relate to the civil rights movement? How did the series relate to the work being done at Langley?

(see the answer keys)

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