Hidden Figures: Young Readers Edition

Katherine spent six months working in the Flight Research Division. Dorothy finally insisted that the division’s boss hire Katherine as a permanent employee and give her a raise. Katherine fit in well with the team of “high-energy, free-thinking, aggressive, and very smart engineers” (103). Her job included analyzing plane crashes to understand what went wrong. In one project, the team learned that disturbances in the air from large planes can remain for up to 30 minutes and be dangerous to smaller aircraft. Important discoveries like this led to changes in air traffic control regulations, making air travel safer for everyone. Katherine found her job very interesting and felt she was doing important work. She knew, of course, that there was discrimination in the laboratory, but she dealt with it by deciding not “to allow herself to worry about it too much” (106).

Katherine, her husband, and their three daughters moved into a new house, and Katherine “felt like she was living the American dream” (107). However, in 1955, her husband was diagnosed with an untreatable tumor at the base of his skull. He got sick very quickly and died just before Christmas in 1956. Katherine and her daughters were heartbroken, but Katherine “refused to give in to her grief” (107).