The history she documented wasn’t so much hidden as unseen, she writes. Shetterly's bestselling book is the inspiration for the 2016 film 'Hidden Figures,' which was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In her book, Hidden Figures, author Margot Lee Shetterly calls the title something of a misnomer. To hear that feature, click this link to APM Reports’ page. Recently, a joint production by the Washington Post and APM reports, titled 'Historically Black,' featured the story of Miriam Daniel Mann, who removed the signs designating areas for 'colored computers' while working at Langley Airfield. To hear that discussion, click the first audio player above. Margot Lee Shetterly grew up in Hampton, Virginia, where she knew many of the women in her book Hidden Figures. The two discussed the many ways women and people of color have contributed to American innovation and explored the prejudice and bias they had to fight against along the way. Presented by the University of Minnesota Humphrey School, Carlson and the Carlson Family Foundation, the presentation included a discussion with Shetterly and Michele Norris, executive director of The Race Card Project at the Aspen Institute. Margot Lee Shetterly, author of 'Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race,' was the Distinguished Carlson Lecturer at the University of Minnesota on Friday. She was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

The was the first woman to receive credit as an author of a Flight Research Division report in 1960, contributing to many programs involving orbital mechanics. Growing up, Shetterly would visit her father often at his office at Langley, but she did not find it remarkable that so many black scientistsincluding black womenworked there.

In this beautifully illustrated picture book edition, we explore the story of four female African American mathematicians at NASA, known as 'colored computers,' and how they overcame gender and racial barriers to succeed in a highly challenging STEM-based career.Katherine Johnson, a mathematician at NASA, contributed to NACA and NASA programs from 1953 to 1986. Margot Shetterly is the author of Hidden Figures and the daughter of a climate research scientist who worked at Langley Research Center. And they used their genius minds to change the world. And they did so during a time when being black and a woman limited what they could do.īut they worked hard. They participated in some of NASA's greatest successes, like providing the calculations for America's first journeys into space. Delivery for this book is approximately 10 daysīased on the New York Times bestselling book and the Academy Award-nominated movie, author Margot Lee Shetterly and illustrator Laura Freeman, bring the incredibly inspiring true story of four black women who helped NASA launch men into space to picture book readers.ĭorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden were good at math.really good.

Hidden figures author