may 6, 1961 - Hidden Figures

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Summary: The true story about the female African- African mathematicians who worked for NASA and helped send a man to space. Story focuses around three of these women known as the "human computers," who helped calculate the launch which sent astronaut John Glenn to space.

Racism: Movie starts off with the 3 women on their way to work when their car breaks down and is on the side of the road. A white cop pulls and seems a little hostile towards them, wondering what they are doing there. Once they say that they work for NASA, his attitude turns more to shock that they would allow blacks to work for them, but he is also impressed. He then provides a police escort to get them to work. Katherine Goble faces a lot of discrimination at her job. She is smarter than most if not all of the white mathematicians, but they treat her disrespectfully and as a lesser. One of the white men even stole credit for an idea that Katherine came up with. Because of segregation laws, she has to walk half a mile across campus to use the colored bathroom. These women are also paid much less than the white coworkers who do the same job. Also, they have less opportunities to get promotions due to their race. Another character, Mary, dreams of being an engineer. She can't do that unless she takes classes, but the classes are only offered at an all-white school. She has to beg the judge to accept her.

Quote: "I plan on being an engineer at NASA, but I can't do that without taking them classes at that all-white high school, and I can't change the color of my skin. So I have no choice, but to be the first, which I can't do without you, sir. Your honor, out of all the cases you gon hear today, which one is gon matter hundred years from now? Which one is gon make you the first?"

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