Before a computer became an inanimate object and before Sputnik changed the course of history, before the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education established that separate was in fact not equal, and before the poetry of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech rang out over the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a group of black women working at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia were helping America dominate aeronautics, space research, and computer technology, carving out a place for themselves as female mathematicians who were also black, black mathematicians who were also female. Hidden Figures is their story.
Released to theaters in January 2017, "Hidden Figures" is now available on DVD. After seeing it in theaters the DVD made the top 3 on my Mother's Day wish list. The author of the book, Margot Lee Shetterly came to Phoenix in April as a guest speaker, sponsored by the ASU Piper Center for Creative Writing. I was enthralled during her entire presentation. Gifted and resilient, these women never gave up on their families. They never gave up on themselves. They never gave up on their gifts. View the trailer below and decide for yourself.
-Stephanie
