This is the well researched non-fictional story of the black females whose work helped put the astronauts in space. Long before the " space race" which began when the Russian's launched Sputnik, black women were being recruited to help fuel the aeronautic industry needs of World War II here at home. This book tells about the lives of 4 of them who grasped the opportunity though fraught with the hardships of prejudice and became first , "computers" (when that was a job done by people not machines), then gradually moved up to assume their rightful places as the brilliant Mathematicians and Engineers they were, right through WWII, the Cold War, The Civil Rights Movement, and finally the Space Race. I was pretty young when John Glenn orbited the earth , but I was 10 When Neil Armstrong, took his " One giant step for mankind" and remember watching the entire launch (on black and white TV) in breathless awe like it was yesterday. These smart , courageous women were the " Hidden Figures" who faced many obstacles to change their own lives and subsequently that of the country. I'm happy their stories have finally been told.
Read for Black History Month-March KUYH 4 stars
I hear the movie is very good as well.