African American Women In The 1950's

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, three African-American women in the United States made history and accomplished several successful National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions. Their mathematical skills and hard work helped send the first American, John Glenn, into outer space in 1962. At the time, the United States segregated people by race. Despite the odds, twenty brilliant women of color worked for NASA. They were known as “human computers.” The film Hidden Figures shows the harsh realities that African-Americans women faced racial bias in their workplace and compared to men they faced occupational disadvantages. Some white people were prejudice against these black women. These women had to prove themselves more than

Nsikan Akpan implies “Virginia was one of the last state’s to abandon Jim Crow policies such as segregated schools. Shetterly traces Hampton’s trail to integration, showing how America struggled with racial reforms through the lens of one progressive city and the nation’s space race with the Soviet Union. Dorothy Vaughn joined NACA’s segregated West Area Computing Unit in December 1943 — a group she would run six years later thanks to her mathematical prowess and leadership tenacity. Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson landed at NACA in the early 1950s. All three were math whizzes at early ages, but Shetterly exposes how these women juggled their love for numbers with desires for family life and battles against segregation.” Maya Wei-Haas suggest “The women fought many more of these seemingly small battles, against separate bathrooms and restricted access to meetings. It was these small battles and daily minutiae that Shetterly strove to capture in her book. And outside of the workplace, they faced many more problems, including segregated busses.” It was offensive when there were signs that would read “color” at work or public places. There even was black and white restaurants divider and black and white bathrooms. Dana Hunter points out “We need to see how ridiculous

O Scott acknowledges “ "Hidden Figures” takes us back to 1961, when racial segregation and workplace sexism were widely accepted facts of life and the word “computer” referred to a person, not a machine.” It is amazing to see how these three black women mastered their jobs and how they never gave up. Through their passion and determination, they were able to truly to gain more knowledge and made other jobs accessible. For instance, people may discriminate color people in public and others may feel persuaded to do the same. This persuasion effect occurs often in public and “effectively conveys the poisonous normalcy of white supremacy, and the main character's’ determination to pursue their ambitions in spite of it and to live normal lives in its shadow.” The film shows scenes of the women of color being intelligent, strong, and ambitious. It is fascinating to view these African-American women breaking the impediments and make history. Whether is by being the first black woman to graduate from the University of Virginia or as a math scientist or engineer or supervisor. Despite the many obstacles, these black women had to overcome, they kept their head up and encourage each other to be successful. They also had their family member for support and encouragement. Overall, the ability to and work ethic they possessed was a strong characteristic. Regardless how unique and different a person is, anyone is capable of making history. The important fact that matters the most is