America Selby

WHO IS THE GREAT Dorothy Vaughn? Great African American Women. America Selby

Outstanding book for Girls! Dorothy Vaughan was the first African American woman to become a section manager for NACA. This was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. This group later became NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). She has become famous as one of the subjects of a bestselling book by Margot Lee Shetterly. The book is titled Hidden Figures. It tells about black women math experts who helped develop planes for World War II. Their work was an important part of winning the war. They also worked on the space program. This work helped put a man on the moon. The book was made into a movie, also called Hidden Figures, with Octavia Spencer playing Vaughan. While she reached an important position within NACA, Dorothy still faced problems with segregation. Segregation is "enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment". African Americans -or colored as they were often called then - faced segregation. At that time in the United States, black people had to use separate items from white people. The unit she later managed, West Computing, was only for African American women. However, it was first managed by white women. Computers, when Dorothy joined the unit, meant people who worked in the area of mathematics. They computed the data needed by the people working on aeronautical research. Aeronautics is "the science or practice of travel through the air."