Hidden Figures

Introduction: The Need for Mathematicians in World War II

Growing up in Hampton, Virginia, Margot Lee Shetterly lived in a community where science and mathematics were the local language. Her father worked as a scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center, and seeing African Americans in high-level technical roles was normal for her. Neighbors taught physics, church members were mathematicians, and family friends led engineering projects. It was only later that she realized how rare this reality was in the rest of the country, where black engineers made up only a tiny fraction of the profession during the mid-twentieth century.

At the heart of this community were women known as computers. Before electronic machines took over, these individuals performed the complex calculations required to design airplanes and launch rockets. In the 1940s, during the era of segregation, the government began hiring black women for these roles in a separate section known as the West Area. Despite the barriers of racial and gender discrimination, they became essential to the nation's progress in flight and space exploration.

In the spring of 1943, the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Virginia faced a critical shortage of workers. The facility served as the scientific heart of American aviation, testing aircraft prototypes to find flaws that might slow a plane down. Because every aspect of flight could be broken down into physics and math, the laboratory required an army of number crunchers to process the results of wind tunnel tests. Since the mid-1930s, these roles had been filled by women, who proved to be exceptionally skilled at precise mathematical work.

As World War II intensified, the demand for these mathematical minds outpaced the supply of available white women. A political shift created a new opening when labor leader A. Philip Randolph pressured President Franklin D. Roosevelt to end racial discrimination in the defense industry. Roosevelt signed executive orders that prohibited discrimination in hiring, allowing the first applications from qualified African American women to reach the laboratory. By opening the door to these women, the facility began an experiment in integration that would eventually help propel the nation into space.