Summary of the Movie Hidden Figures

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Hidden Figures movie report
Summary of the movie and how it relates to class topic areas
Hidden Figures is a 2016 American Feature film about three African American ladies, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson working at the Langley Research Center, NASA, during the space race with Russia. The three are among women who worked in the West Area Computing Unit to complete intricate mathematical calculations. Johnson was promoted to the Space Task Group, working to put a man in space due to her prowess in analytical geometry. As the first black woman in the group, she faced abject racism and gender discrimination. Nevertheless, she became an integral team member who saved the moon landing event in the 11th hour with accurate trajectory calculations. Vaughan, who oversaw the black women working in the Unit, struggled to get a supervisor promotion despite doing all the work. It took her mastery of the IBM machine and FORTRAN programming for her capabilities to be recognized and promoted. Jackson was dispensed to the Space Capsule Heat Shield Team. Her tremendous diagnostic skills prevailed, and she was encouraged to pursue the senior-most engineering positions. She struggled through her husband’s objection, and a lack of the right qualifications only taught in an all-white high school. Nevertheless, she won over the local judge with the argument of becoming the first and saved astronaut Glenn with informed advice on the heat shield. After the event, Katherine went on to estimate trajectories for Apollo 11 and 13, and the Center was retitled Katherine G. Johnson Research Facility.
Racial discrimination issues feature prominently in how the three women are treated in the Langley Research Center. First, the three, together with other women of color, work from the West Area Computing Unit, an isolated building from the entire research center. When Katherine Johnson is allotted to the Space Task Group, her colleagues first mistake her as the genitor; she is forced to use a coffee pot labeled colored from the rest and walk over half a mile to another building to relieve herself.
The theory of bias and privilege comes across in this film. Non-white employees are disadvantaged over white employees despite their extemporary performance. For example, Katherine Johnson is forced to keep her name out of reports she actively participates in p...