Hidden figures : the untold story of the African American women who helped win the space race / Margot Lee Shetterly.

Film tie-in.

First published: 2016.

"The book that inspired the film from Twentieth Century Fox"-- Cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [273]-328) and index.

Genius has no race. Strength has no gender. Coruage has no limit. The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space. Before John Glenn orbited the earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, some of the brightest minds of their generation, known as 'human computers', used pencils and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the civil rights movement, and the space race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA's greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances, and used their intellect to change their own lives, and their country's future. It is a powerful and revelatory tale of race, discrimination and achievement in the modern world.