Historic Pictures Show the Hidden Women of the Space Race

In a very early scene, the three women, stuck on the side of the road with auto trouble, are approached by a white highway trooper. This is no dry history lesson, but an often amusing, ultimately feel-good triumph of geeks who faced even more absurd obstacles than any white boy with a pocket protector.

In a memorable scene in “Hidden Figures”, NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson, “Empire“) has to visit the ladies’ room. But in the early 1990s, scholars began to show more interest in the history of NASA’s workforce, and the institution’s archivists began to unearth those untold stories, in part by interviewing former female computers at the agency’s Langley Research Center in Virginia.

Taraji P. Henson is marvelous as Johnson, who does a lot of standing at blackboards chalking out calculations to invent the math needed to put a ship into orbit and return it safely to Earth. It was presented to her during a White House ceremony by President Obama, who also knows a thing or two about breaking down some doors.

Mary Jackson spent 34 years on the job at NASA as a mathematician and aeronautical engineer.

“Hidden Figures” also captures a moment of peak schizophrenia in America, when these women were contributing their brainpower to a major historical initiative yet were second-class citizens both outside the office and within it. “Hidden Figures” proves the importance of never giving up on our dreams. “You wouldn’t notice them, unless you’re a geek like me”.

At the Hidden Figures premiere, Spencer looked sleek in black St. John, Jimmy Choo heels, statement earrings and smoky eye makeup.

“Hidden Figures”, the highly anticipated film adaptation of Shetterly’s book, opens in theatres nationwide tomorrow (Friday, Jan. 6). Dorothy, seeking a book that will teach her about FORTRAN, gets thrown out of a public library for daring to browse in the whites-only section.

But in the first half of the 20th century, Johnson was penned in by stereotypes about her race and her gender, as well as Jim Crow laws that mandated the segregation of African-Americans.

Henson, Spencer and Monae all excel, conveying the intensity and worthiness of these women’s ambitions, even as they deal, nearly in a matter of fact way, with obstacles that are maddening. Sometimes they speak in obvious slogans: “Civil rights ain’t always civil!”

They combine forces to carry this film opposite some strong performances (Kevin Costner as a NASA leader looking for the best people no matter their color) and some weaker ones (Jim Parsons looks awkward as an insensitive co-worker).

Director Theodore Melfi’s straightforward, feel-good approach has the whiff of a television movie. It’s more than just short hair and a white shirt, but rather a whole way of being, an attitude, the life history. There are more scenes of Henson running in this movie than there are of Arnold Schwarzenegger running in all of The Running Man.

Spencer echoed Williams’ hope for a new, more diverse inspiration for problem-solving, describing Hidden Figures as “a call to action for Moms to nurture our young girls and foster those inquisitive minds”. And that’s the beauty of film in a sentence. As the brash, no-nonsense Mary Jackson, Janelle Monáe (Moonlight) is the absolute stand-out of the film and deserves an Oscar nomination for her supporting role, despite her screen time being much less than her co-stars.