Summary

Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly, tells the history of black women working in the space science industry as human computers amidst segregation laws. These women were responsible for the processing of complex mathematical problems, and their work made it possible for the United States to reach the moon.

The author starts the book with a Prologue in which she describes how she became interested in learning about the black women who worked at Langley. Shetterly’s father told her that her former Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Kathaleen Land, had been a computer at Langley. He went on to explain that several women in the area had worked on calculating the launch windows for early astronauts.

The author remembers spending days in her father’s office at NASA’s Langley Research Center where he was a climate scientist. Shetterly grew up...