Hidden Figures: Historical Context

"The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension marked by competition and confrontation between communist nations led by the Soviet Union and Western democracies including the United States ... "

"The space race was a period of competition between the Soviet Union and the United States over who could conquer space exploration first ... "

"After World War II drew to a close in the mid-20th century, a new conflict began. Known as the Cold War, this battle pitted the world’s two great powers—the democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union—against each other. Beginning in the late 1950s, space became another dramatic arena for this competition, as each side sought to prove the superiority of its technology, its military firepower and–by extension–its political-economic system ... "

"These ground-breaking female mathematicians, engineers and scientists produced calculations crucial to the success of NASA's early space missions ... "

"It’s ironic that women today must fight for equality in Silicon Valley. After all, their math skills helped launch the digital age ... "

"As America stood on the brink of a Second World War, the push for aeronautical advancement grew ever greater, spurring an insatiable demand for mathematicians. Women were the solution ... "

"In the 1960s, astronauts Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn and others absorbed the accolades of being America's first men in space. They reached the orbit with the nation's first crewed space program, project Mercury. Behind the scenes, their triumphs were enabled by hundreds of unheralded NASA workers, including "human computers" who calculated their orbital trajectories ..."

"Before computers existed as we know them, data was processed by women, often black women. But they were much more than mere calculators. Indeed, the achievements of Katherine Johnson and many others were integral to NASA’s success ..."

"The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as the world’s leading superpowers and soon entered into a Cold War. New defense technologies developed during World War II continued into the postwar period as the superpowers entered into an arms race initially centered on the development of rocket-powered missiles with the ability to deliver weapons over long distances ..."

"On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong landed gently on the lunar surface and became the first person to set foot on another world. People around the world stopped what they were doing to crowd around television sets and radios to witness one of the greatest achievements in human history—a man walking on the moon. How did we get there? Why haven't we gone back? ... "

"Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Named after a Black minstrel show character, the laws—which existed for about 100 years, from the post-Civil War era until 1968—were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities. Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence and death ... "

"The segregation and disenfranchisement laws known as "Jim Crow" represented a formal, codified system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South for three quarters of a century beginning in the 1890s. The laws affected almost every aspect of daily life, mandating segregation of schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, trains, and restaurants. "Whites Only" and "Colored" signs were constant reminders of the enforced racial order ... "

"After the Civil War, millions of formerly enslaved African Americans hoped to join the larger society as full and equal citizens. Although some white Americans welcomed them, others used people’s ignorance, racism, and self-interest to sustain and spread racial divisions. By 1900, new laws and old customs in the North and the South had created a segregated society that condemned Americans of color to second-class citizenship ..."

"The term “Jim Crow” is thought to have originated in the song “Jump Jim Crow,” which a white minstrel performer in blackface made famous during the 1830s. His exaggerated mimicking of African American stereotypes may have caused the term to become associated with southern stereotypes of presumed black inferiority. After the end of Reconstruction in the South in the late 1870s, southern states began passing legislation to take away the rights that former slaves had enjoyed after the . By the turn of the twentieth century, the term Jim Crow became synonymous with discrimination and particularly ... "

"In the middle of the 20th century, a nationwide movement for equal rights for African Americans and for an end to racial segregation and exclusion arose across the United States ... "

"The NAACP’s legal strategy against segregated education culminated in the 1954 Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. African Americans gained the formal, if not the practical, right to study alongside their white peers in primary and secondary schools. The decision fueled an intransigent, violent resistance during which Southern states used a variety of tactics to evade the law ... "

"In the 1960s, Americans who knew only the potential of "equal protection of the laws" expected the President, the Congress, and the courts to fulfill the promise of the 14th Amendment. In response, all three branches of the federal government – as well as the public at large – debated a fundamental constitutional question: Does the Constitution's prohibition of denying equal protection always ban the use of racial, ethnic, or gender criteria in an attempt to bring social justice and social benefits? ... "

"Although it is difficult to assign a precise time to the beginning of the modern Civil Rights movement, the 1950’s can be identified as the decade when efforts to achieve equal rights for minorities in the United States became a mass movement. At this time, several historical trends promoting such a movement came together. America’s largest minority group, African Americans, lived mainly in rural areas at the beginning of the twentieth century. By the 1950’s, many were living in cities, where they had sufficient concentration and organization to begin a widespread political struggle ... "