When I first heard about the movie Hidden Figures, I was elated. A movie staring three talented black women, telling the true story of three strong, intelligent black women was exactly what this world needed to see, what I needed to see. There are so few of those movies even made and even fewer receive the amount of promotion Hidden figures did. I could barely contain my excitement to see the movie. Impatiently, I waited for the movie's release. It was on the top of my list of movies to see for a few months. However, the longer I waited, the more bitter I became. My bitterness had nothing to do the wait to see the movie and everything to do with how long Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson had to wait for their stories to be told.
These three women had great stories that this country, this world, has needed to hear about for some time. The amount of representation for women, especially black women, in our history books and proficient in math or sciences is lacking to say the least. But there are women like Johnson, Vaughn and Jackson out there and girls who could grow up to be like them if only they knew it was possible. Despite their groundbreaking, history making triumphs occurring decades ago, Johnson, Vaughn and Jackson weren't even so much as mentioned in history books. The length of time it has taken for their stories to be told has proven once again that American history is only American history if the main character in the story is a white man. Everyone else is separated into subgroups taught as electives in schools as if they're somehow less pertinent to the overall history of this country. We learned about the race to space, the first man in space, the first man on the moon. However the people, specifically the women behind getting them there weren't given the credit they deserved.
Johnson, Vaughn and Jackson did so much for themselves, their families, women, black Americans and all Americans yet their story is just now being told, over 50 years later. They not only worked their way up to prestigious positions despite being working women in a time that women were still thought to be meant only to stay at home, they also did so as black women in a country that still very much considered black people to be less than. These women managed to persevere through both racism and sexism. As a black woman in 2017, I can tell you that navigating this life as such can still be difficult. I could not imagine the amount of difficulty and pain in trying to make a successful career for myself as a black woman within a majority white male operation like NASA in a time where my presence was not only rare but also unwelcome.
After the movie was released and I was finally able to see it, the bitterness faded. While I was still angry that it had taken so long for me to learn this incredible story about women who look like me, I'm also happy that little black girls growing up will be able to see themselves represented in even more ways than I saw as a child. And I'll use Hidden Figures as a reminder that even if you can't see someone like yourself doing something extraordinary, that doesn't mean they aren't out there. Their story just may not have been told yet.
