By now most of us with an interest in mathematics or mathematics education have seen the powerful movie Hidden Figures—many of us likely more than once. The inspiring film focuses on the critical role of three African American women and their significant contributions to the mathematical and engineering work necessary to the initial success of the U.S. space program in the 1960s.
The movie also uncovers for many of us the significant mathematical contributions many African American women made, beginning in 1943, to aeronautical research as part of the West Computing Group at Langley, where they manually carried out complex computations for flight and space research as "human computers."