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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 was Katherine Goble Johnson's relationship with her white male coworkers like?

2. Where was Katherine Goble Johnson when she found out about the jobs available at Langley for black women?

3. What position was Dorothy Lee subbing in when she impressed the branch chief with her math skills and earned her permanent position in his branch?

4. What innovation was added to the wind tunnels to make them more closely simulate flight conditions?

5. What did school boards in the community around Langley do to keep black students from attending white schools after schools were integrated?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. In the 1950s, what made Dorothy Vaughan believe that the nature of the computers' jobs would be changing?

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

4. How did the disbanding of West Area Computing affect Dorothy Vaughan?

5. What happened that allowed Katherine Goble Johnson the opportunity to publish her first research report?

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

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

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

9. Why did Katherine and Jimmy Goble have to stay with relatives when they attended Jimmy's sister's wedding?

10. What was one major change that occurred when NACA became NASA?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Write an essay describing the impact of the Rosenberg trial on employees at Langley. Why was Langley drawn into the trial? How did the trial affect interactions between employees? What was the impact on racial relations within Langley?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 996 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample