Hidden Figures is a movie about three African- American women: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson who worked as “computers” at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 
They were not computers that sit on your desk that process information, but mathematicians, and their jobs entailed mathematical calculations that enabled space travel to be safe. As one imagines, the early days of preparing for space travel and exploration were by trial and error because of the equipment, the lack of electronic computers, and the lack of experience and history to build on.
In this story, these women helped astronaut John Glenn orbit the earth and return safely. It was not always sure that John Glenn would return safely, and these women played a significant role in making this happen. These women were highly trained, dedicated, and talented and worked under racist and sexist conditions. This is during the height of the civil rights movement, and the movie takes place in Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, in 1961.
I surmised that the movie title is derived because these women’s story has been hidden from history. It is an untold story of patriotism, professionalism, and commitment. I had not heard of these women when the movie came out in 2016.
The ladies in Hidden Figures quietly showed leadership as they broke new ground in a career field that was not available to African Americans and barely to women, which was human computers for NASA. It was their way of “fighting the power” by being the very best in their field of mathematics. Mathematics is not an easy field; you must have the skills and talents to solve equations. I believe that it is a gift.
In the background of the movie were scenes from the civil rights movement. Pictures of protests and white and colored-only public facilities, and mention of separate but unequal schools. In their personal way, these three sheroes tore down vestiges of inequality and second-class citizenship by staging their protests by challenging the system, challenging stereotypes, being courageous, hard-working, showing confidence, being brilliant, and I believe God fearing. They reminded me of my grandmother, Mrs. Margaret Light, the first African American woman named supervisor and then manager of the South Florida Baptist Hospital Housekeeping Department in Plant City, Florida. She was promoted because she was the best in her job even though, due to no fault of her own, she only graduated from the 8th grade because there was no colored high school in Plant City, a vestige of separate but unequal.
The movie’s climax was when the Director tore down the colored women’s bathroom sign with a crowbar because it was inherently wrong and simply an insult, degrading, and unfair burden to the African American women who had to pass by white-only bathrooms to go to a colored-only bathroom. While tearing down the sign, the Director said in a rage now everyone pees the same color. Now that is progress.
I am so happy that Ms. Katherine, Ms. Dorothy, and Ms. Mary made history, and I wish their story could have been told long before now. They fit the moniker “young, gifted, and black” before it was coined in 1964 by Chicago playwright Loraine Hansberry in an address to teenage contestants who won a national creative writing award. I thank God for the women’s lives and what they did to improve the lives of Black people.
The movie was more than about getting John Glenn safely to space and back. It was a movie about fighting for our rights, fairness, and equality and treating black women and people with dignity and respect. The very last scene of the movie sums up the accomplishment of these women, and the essence of the movie, when Paul, Katherine’s supervisor, brought her a cup of coffee while she worked. Now that is progress…again.
Bison family, the question today is, who are the hidden figures in your family and history that you hold dear? What are their untold stories of “being first” and courageous? Tell their stories because, like in the movie, there is a leadership lesson for us to follow.
Happy Women’s History Month!
Chaplain Hazel Robinson