Hidden Figures

01Ignoring key contributors' work - a crime?

Let's take a trip back in time, to the 1940s, when the world was in the throes of World War II. Over in the United States, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA (which would later become NASA), was shifting gears. They were moving from commercial aviation to military applications, and they needed a whole lot of brainpower to do it. Enter Dorothy Vaughan, an African American woman with a knack for numbers and a degree in Mathematics from Wilberforce University. Despite the racial discrimination of the time, Dorothy was hired by NACA in 1943. She was part of the first group of human computers - folks who crunched numbers and performed complex calculations to help engineers design and optimize military aircraft. But here's the kicker - despite their vital contributions, these African American women were largely ignored and unappreciated. This is the "crime of neglecting essential contributors" that we're talking about. These women were instrumental in America's advancements in aeronautics, but their stories were swept under the rug for years. This is where the book comes in. It aims to right this wrong by shining a spotlight on the contributions of these women. It emphasizes that these women weren't just background characters, but key players in the success of America's aeronautics and space programs. Their work paved the way for future breakthroughs in space technology and computer science. In a nutshell, the "crime" here is the systematic and historical erasure of these women's contributions because of their race and gender. The book serves as a kind of antidote, illuminating their stories and securing their place in history. It's a reminder that greatness and innovation aren't the sole domain of a certain race or gender, but the result of a group effort and diverse contributions.