Tried With Fire

If you've watched  Hidden Figures,  it depicts a scene where Katherine Johnson (Goble at the time) comes into her new office and is handed a trashcan from a white engineer with the order to empty it the next time. The following excerpt from the book describes the incident very differently with much less drama than the big screen, but it gives insight into Katherine's character. The room hummed with pre-lunch activity as Katherine surveyed it for a place to wait for her new bosses. She made a beeline for an empty cube, siting down next to an engineer, resting her belongings on the desk and offering the man her winning smile. As she sat, and before she could issue a greeting in her gentle southern cadence, the man gave her a sideways glance, got up, and walked away. Katherine watched the engineer disappear. Had she broken some unspoken rule? Could her mere presence have driven him away? It was a private and unobtrusive moment, one that failed to dent the rhythm of the o...

"Hidden Figures" is one of the best books that I've read in a long time. It combines history, science, and some of the most inspiring women you could ever meet. I was so proud of Dorothy, Katherine, and Mary and the strides they made as scientists and black women during an era that discriminated against them as African Americans and women. I could not help but think about the women scientists in my family who immigrated to North America. Their circumstances were different from the women in the book, but there were strong similarities. In fields dominated by white men, they worked hard to get an education and jobs in their respective fields with the goal of making life better for their families here and back home. It wasn't about pursuing self-actualization but to help as many of the extended family as possible to immigrate. I am very proud of my parents and aunts and uncles. But it hit me recently that it took "Hidden Figures" to make me realize that I ...

I was going to write a review of  Hidden Figures but it's hard writing a review when you only have an audio version. Even though I listened to it twice, I can't go back to a particular page, but I can share what I remember and the thoughts and questions it has raised. Hidden Figures tells the story of the African American female mathematicians who helped the US win the space race and provided the math know-how for aircraft design during WWII. These women worked as human computers - solving advanced mathematical calculations with only their brains, data tables, and rudimentary calculators before the advent of the modern computers that we know today. One of these women was Dorothy Vaughan . Dorothy was a wife, mother, and public school teacher in Farmville, Virginia. She declined the opportunity to pursue a graduate degree in mathematics to become a teacher, one of the few professions open to black female college graduates. At that time, Virginia was in the bottom 25% for U...